ABSTRACT
Addressing a group of American businessmen in the 1970s, an Australian professor of economics once opened his lecture with the remark that his country was, in many ways 'a potty little country, of little account in the world'. Richard Downing of the University of Melbourne went on to describe Australia the same way that poet T. S. Eliot described America, as 'a large flat country which no-one wants to visit'. The economic history of Australia and New Zealand is a story of chequered economic development but, overwhelmingly one of growth, prosperity and structural diversification in what were resource-driven economies. Their economic paths were remarkably similar in exporting staples such as wool, wheat, dairy products, meat, timber and metals to Britain. Another concern was both countries' arbitration systems, which were as unique as the kangaroo or the kiwi. This institutional arrangement lasted in each country 27for nearly 100 years.
