Reviving the Radical 1890s: Contemporary Returns to WilliamLane’s Australian Utopian Settlements in Paraguay

IN 1893, BETWEEN FIVE HUNDRED AND SIX HUNDRED MIGRANTS from as-yet-unfederated British colonies in Australia traveled to Paraguay to establish a Utopian socialist community (Souter 282). At settlement they founded in South America, all land and property was collectively owned. The constitution enshrined teetotalism and the color line, an attempt at race-based social planning that pre-dated White Australia Policy by eight years. The community was Utopian in sense that it envisaged and tried to implement a model of a perfect society intended to set an example for others to follow (Metcalf 7; Morris and Kross xxi). society was to be free of class and racial conflict - it would exclude non-Anglo Saxons all together - and would treat sexes as equals (New Australia 1.1:4).The leader of New Australia movement was William Lane, a charismatic, British labor journalist. He believed institution of private property was fundamentally corrupting and led inevitably to poverty, economic exploitation, and crime: This is where sin begins, this is sin which underlies it - that a few own what all must have before they can work (New Australia 1.1:2). By reversing this single principle and successfully establishing in Paraguay, Lane believed New Australian workers would teach an lesson, not just to country they had abandoned, but to all (New Australia 1.6: 4). His vision was a grand one. Hoping others would emulate New Australia's model of small, collectivist village settlements, he corresponded with leaders of similar organizations in Mexico and South Africa. Eventually - and this was Utopian indeed - he believed such communities would replace industrial capitalism across globe (New Australia 1.1: 1).New Australia emerged toward end of great international era of Utopian experiments. From mid-eighteenth century to end of nineteenth century, hundreds of similar communities were founded in Americas and around world. Often, these small-scale reformist societies were antimodern, a reaction against industrialization and urbanization. Like New Australians, who sometimes referred to their ship The Royal Tar as Our Mayflower (New Australia 1 .2:3 ) , many of them were inspired by example of United States.Utopianism flourished later in Australia than elsewhere, peaking in depression of 1890s. The fate of Queensland settlements was typical of those in other colonies. Following passage of 1893 Co-Operative Settlement Act, twelve communes were established involving some two thousand people (Metcalf 26). All struggled due to lack of agricultural expertise, harsh conditions, and infighting. When inspirational example New Australia collapsed in Paraguay, press and colonial governments at home crowed: socialism in New Australia and Old Australia, has practically failed, as everyone who has read history, or his bible, ought to have known it would fail (The Queenslander, qtd. in Metcalf 28). By 1896, all Queensland settlements had disbanded, and those in other colonies soon followed. The collectivist dream faded from Australian political landscape, not to be revived, with a few exceptions, until communes of 1960s and 1970s counterculture. New Australia, it seemed, had succeeded in teaching an object lesson to world (New Australia 1.1:1), but it was not lesson intended.What went wrong in Paraguay? The trouble stemmed, principally, from a split between wowsers and carousers. Many bachelors from bush disliked Lane's severe, ascetic brand of socialism: they demanded right to drink alcohol and have relationships with local women. Wives dragged into venture by their husbands complained of hardship of pioneer life (Whitehead, Paradise Lost Episode 3). Within a few months, community split into factions. The Royalists continued to support Lane as leader; Rebels objected to his authoritarianism, and demanded his replacement with a board of management (Souter 85-6). …