Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
The beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in New South Wales quickly enabled NSW to engage in the economy of the world. After explorers navigated across the Blue Mountains in 1813 it enabled the agricultural industry to emerge. NSW had rich fertile soil and the pastoralists were able to raise sheep that produced world class wool.
The first fleet arrived in NSW in 1788 during the Industrial Revolution in Britain. The convicts were put to work to build roads and buildings. The new colony would need transportation and communication technology in order to grow in wealth. At first though, food was in short supply until the more regular arrival of ships and they were forced to eat native game and fruits. Later, flower mills were built in order to make bread.
NSW was quite technologically progressive because ideas and innovations were bought from Britain. The arrival of convicts provided labour and the first steam ship were built in NSW waters in 1830.
The first steam mill was built beside Darling Harbour in 1813 and the year before that the road from Sydney to Parramatta was opened. This met the growing need for transportation of goods and people, especially because Australia is a very large country and transport was needed between remote settlements.
Railways were eventually built to transport both goods and people over the vast distances between settlements and remote rural areas. A railway line was completed in 1855 between Sydney and Parramatta, railways were hugely important as they guaranteed a town to become more prosperous.
Railways bought books, mail, newspapers, food and goods. The towns’ people were able to be linked to the outside world.
Just as in Britain machinery that replaces farm labour such as the wheat machine invented puts men out of work and forces them to work in the city. This puts pressure on housing and jobs in the city.
• Increase in child labour
• Unfair wages
• Extremely long working hours
• Unhealthy living conditions
• Dirty urban areas
• Unhealthy factories
• We use more natural resources to run machines
• Started the emission of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels
• Started global warming
• Pollution started to become a problem
• Increase in waste
• Land fill
Not too late after they were invented, Australians became using new technology like electric telegraphs, telephones, cable, electric trams, gas and electric light. There was obviously some environmental impacts that Australia suffered through like deforestation. When the trees were cleared, the wildlife in the forest also became sparse. The lack of trees also didn’t help the problem of carbon emissions. While trees or plants provide the source of oxygen, factories were letting out poisonous gases and eliminating the oxygen. The pollution that has resulted from factories didn’t only cause airborne pollution but land and water pollution as well. This then resulted in global warming, which is still an issue we have today. Because of the glaciers melting and the oceans rising, more animal species are becoming endangered or extinct.
At some point during the decade of the establishment of the settlement at Sydney, there were changes made like harnessing the latest technology for communication, transportation and also just for the production of wealth. By 1850, Australia was one of the world’s richest pastoral areas as they started having a reputation of being the best on the planet. This new wealth demanded transport and communication facilities but these weren’t really very necessary because wool was light and could easily been traded on foot. Meanwhile, other Australian colonies were established over the course of the first four decades of the 19th century. These three became Tasmania, Queensland and Victoria.
But before railway construction begun, steamships were used in New South Wales waters. Railway building began in Sydney in 1849. However, the first lines were not opened until 1854. These were in Victoria and in South Australia. With these new lines, Sydney and Melbourne suddenly no longer became mere settlements but cities with facilities that rivalled with similar places in the US. The Australian colonies embraced the new technology of the times with enthusiasm.
Gold was then discovered in Victoria by 1850. Those who travelled to Australia in the 1850s bought with them the knowledge, experience and the skins of the Industrial Revolution. Many had rode in trains, worked in the new Industrial factories and were confident that this new age had made Britain the most powerful nation on Earth. Some of them even travelled to Australia on the amazing ss Great Britain the first iron hulled auxiliary ocean-going steam passenger ship ever built.