ABSTRACT
The Australia of colonial self-rule, approximately the second half of the nineteenth century, represented a different political geography, that of six colonies. Tasmania's only recorded boom was over and a larger proportion of land and resources had been appropriated than elsewhere in Australia before mid-century. South Australia was a small and isolated colony but with a maybe overstated reputation for political cleanliness which has been sustained. Land is simply the best known dimension of Queensland's culture of political corruption during the second half of the nineteenth century, a culture established early and then at least in general terms in receipt of more public support than criticism. McQuilton's study of Ned Kelly discusses the ways in which squatters corruptly abused the system in North Eastern Victoria in the 1860s and 1870s. West Australia is the most anomalous among the six colonies in terms of both broad political experience and the more particular issue of corruption.
