ABSTRACT
The Enlightenment in Australia was predominantly materialistic, agrarian and centred on the reclamation of what was regarded as wastelands at the expense of the dispossessed and excluded Indigenous people. In early Australia, as in Europe, social progressed was measured by the state of civic institutions, the rule of law, public morality, general prosperity and material improvement. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides the historical, political and social context that led to the rise of the stadial theories and explains their place within the conjectural history. It argues that in the colonial Australian context the notions of civilisation and assimilation, or more correctly reverse assimilation, were virtually interchangeable. The book focuses on Lachlan Macquarie's "civilising" measures and looks at the Protestant attempts to convert the Aborigines to Christianity.
