Australian Utopia in Paraguay part 2

After the crises of the Maritime Dispute in 1890, Shearers’ Dis­pute in 1891 and the Great Depression of early 1890s, many in Austral­ia’s work­­­ing class believed that their nation could never be a work­ingman’s parad­ise. Some were drawn to a utopian settlement in Paraguay. 

William Lane, c1892

Wiki

British-born William Lane (1861–1917) was the popular editor of Bris­bane Work­er newspaper, inspiring the 1890s Aust­r­al­ian la­bour move­ment. Lane loathed oppr­essive industrial laws, dan­g­erous work pr­actices and Chinese migrat­ion. He loved the Women’s Suf­frage Mov­e­ment, progressive taxation, and ut­op­ian societies.

Why did the New Australia Move­ment chose the remote nation of Parag­uay, full of jungles. The New Aust­r­alia Ass­oc­iation originally thought farming would be best in Argent­ina, but that government was unhelpful.

After a long dictatorship, Paraguay had declared war in 1865-70 ag­ain­st its neighbours Brasil, Argent­ina and even Ur­ug­uay. Dev­ast­ation fol­l­owed when two-thirds of Paraguay’s popul­ation were dam­aged or kil­led. The nat­ional govern­ment offer­ed mig­rants desirable land grants, to boost its popul­at­ion of fit young men and help the local economy.

This was the first-ever organised emigration project from Australia, but was op­posed by lo­cal newspapers. So the group continued working and seek­ing members, and pub­lis­h­ed the monthly Journal of New Aust­ra­l­ia commenc­ing Nov 1892. Men had to pay £60 each to join the colony, a large out­­lay! Still, Lane signed up 238 shearers, farmers, stock­men, un­ionists and their families. The Co-operative bought the S.S Royal Tar, intend­ing to transport many ship­loads of members to the new par­adise. They  all gathered in Sydney, but the NSW government used all its mar­it­­­ime rul­es to delay the first voyage.

 
In July 1893 the tall ship finally sailed, across the Pac­if­ic, round Cape Horn and up the Arg­entine coast. In Sept, 500 Aust­ralians arrived in Paraguay’s capital, As­uncion. From there they cont­inued by train to their promised land, facing bul­l­ocks, wag­ons, riv­ers and mosquitoes until they arrived. 75,000 hect­ares of FREE land, but nothing like the arable land they’d wanted.

Eventually the Royal Tar sailed from Ad­el­aide with an­ot­h­er ship­load of emigrants for Paraguay, the utopia of equality, fairness and comm­unal liv­ing. But while many of the settlers seemed both skil­led and well motivated, some New Aust­ralia set­t­l­ers were not well suited to rural life, couldn’t toler­ate grim condit­ions and spoke no Spanish.

Alas Lane was an autocrat; his controlling lead­ership style was al­ready clear aboard ship. His strict rules bann­ed alcohol or soc­ial­ising with local women, very difficult for the single shear­ers. And there were few single Australian women. But even with Lane’s total control, how horrible that committed men were expel­l­ed!

New Australia soon comprised a few small villages and farms but many settlers left to seek a better city-based life. In response to falling numbers and failing finances, and appalled by the behaviour of the young shearers, Lane left.

Par­aguay’s gov­ernment was still generous, granting Lane’s second group another area of land in the south. This even more faithful group of 63 Chr­istian soc­ial­ists moved to a new set­tlement, Cosme 72 ks away, st­ar­ting to clear the bush, buil­d­ houses and plant crops. And a shop soon opened.

Cosme's first shop

University of Sydney

Cosme’s philosophy had the aims of an idealistic society: 1] ev­eryone was equal­, with commitment to the sup­erior­ity of English speaking whites, 2] lifelong marriage and 3] tee­total­ism. Even in the 1890s, this was a strange mix­­ of radicalism and conservatism, perhaps following the views of Australian working-class move­ments th­en. But it was difficult.

Cosme Monthly was a small news journal, from Nov 1894-Dec 1896, hand­written by William Lane. All issues were 4-6 pages, some print­ed by Trade Union Printers of E. London. Subscript­ions for Cosme Month­ly were accepted at Trades’ Halls in all Australian capitals, showing propaganda and progress reports. Regarding social life they reported danc­ing classes, gala nights, cricket matches, chess ga­mes, the Lit­erary and Social Union and school dates for the 22 pupils. 

Cricket match, Cosme

The sett­le­ment’s dire situation could be seen in the final issue (June 1904) of Cosme Month­ly headed: Consider Before Coming: Intend­ing migr­ants to Cosme should carefully consider the foll­owing

Health: The work here is entirely manual, the summer climate is trying and the food is very limited.
Temperament: Disappointments in the industries are common in Cosme; af­­t­er 10 years, still in debt. Our popul­at­ion decreased since last May

One of Aust­ral­ia’s most fam­ous writ­ers, Mary Gilmore, was a colonist who ed­ited the newspaper, taught Cos­me’s ch­il­d­ren and married a settl­er. Gilmore, who’d always bel­ieved in social­ist ideals, wrote about her time in Paraguay saying “It wasn't a succ­ess, however it was a gr­eat exper­ien­ce. Under Lane’s dictat­or­ship it would never work!”

Australian farm workers in Cosme

Courier Mail

Cosme’s sense of lost ideo­l­og­ical and fin­ancial invest­ment must have been heartbreaking. Within a few years most of the fam­­­ilies star­t­ed to move else­where in Parag­uay, sailing to UK or returning home. Event­ually the settle­­ments were dissolved as a coop­erative by the Par­a­guay government, and settlers who stayed were given their own private land. Lane res­ig­ned as Chairman in June 1899 and left. But even now, there are des­cendants of the original New Aust­ral­ians in Paraguay, with names like Jones or with red hair.

5 years after leaving Australia, Lane ditched his socialist utopia and moved to N.Z where he returned to journalism for a right-wing newspap­er!! From N.Z, Lane was invited by the Aus­tralian Work­ers’ Union to be­come editor of the Sydney Worker. He was back with the Australian Lab­our movement but he only for 3 months because his views were no long­er comp­at­­ible with Labour values. He’d ad­voc­ated a strong imper­ial­is­t­ic line during the Boer War!! When WW1 started in 1914, this became a plat­form for rabid British patr­iot­ism and anti-German views. Lane was rel­uctant to talk about Parag­uay but died in Aug 1917 anyhow.

The New Australia & Cosme Collection in NSW’s Powerhouse Museum analy­ses the socio–politics of late C19th Australian colonial society, his­tory of our labour movement, migration of culture between nations, and Paraguay’s New Australia utop­ian settlement. See the Migration Herit­age Centre with its Cosme Monthly, a great source of contemp­orary settlement information.

Summary
Paraguay was trying to rejuvenate its economy by off­ering immig­rants free land, tax exemptions and farming assistance. Paraguay made a deal with Lane’s New Australia Co-operat­ive Assoc­iat­ion - that he’d receive c230,000 hectares of land in exchange for 1,200 migr­ants. Nueva Aust­ra­lia started off well (1893) and within the first few years, the col­ony had prominent re­sidents. But by 1902 the utopian dr­eam had failed, due to William Lane’s autocracy and due to the tough South Am­er­ican jungle. Some of the or­ig­inal sett­l­ers moved to an Australian community c70 ks away and others moved away totally.

There aren’t many descendants of the original Austral­ians left in Nueva Australia/now Nueva Londres, but there is still an Aust­ralian flag on the welcome sign.