Too remote, too primitive and too expensive: Scandinavian settlers in colonial Queensland

Too remote, too primitive and too expensive: Scandinavian settlers in colonial Queensland

The defining feature of colonial Queensland was its high immigrant population. In a concerted effort to populate the land with European settlers, Queensland’s colonial administrators had enacted a pioneering immigration policy between 1860 and 1901, allowing Queensland to claim the highest percentage of foreign-born residents of all the Australian colonies in 1891. As well as the multitude of English, Irish, Scottish and German settlers that accepted governmental offers of open land and assisted passage, there was also a significant Scandinavian element that would call Queensland home. This article gives a broad overview of Scandinavian settler life in colonial Queensland.

Copyright © Mark Emmerson, 2015. Accepted version deposited in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please see Publisher's link for the definitive Published version.