Australian History
Book Details

The Land Boomers

The Complete Illustrated History

Michael Cannon

Michael Cannon’s extraordinary study of boomtime Australia, now profusely illustrated with contemporary, photographs, cartoons and etchings.

Opinion

. . . a vivid and exciting account of the causes and effects of the crash, with sparkling stories of the bad men and a harrowing description of the effects of the depression on its victims. The Times Literary Supplement

. . . a book to shock . . . at all times superb entertainment Age

About this Title

Boom or bust? What was the truth of the great land booms that swept Australia in the 1880s and 1890s? How was it that some speculators amassed prodigious fortunes, while others went so spectacularly broke?

Seventy years after the events, historian Michael Cannon began sifting through thousands of records and documents, long since filed and forgotten. He pieced together an incredible trail of corruption and roguery, rarely if ever equalled in any parliamentary democracy.

When the bare bones of this exposé were first published in 1966, it caused an immediate sensation as the forebears of many well-known families were involved. Never before had any Australian historian been able to document such unbridled greed and over-riding ambition. Extended and revised, The Land Boomers is generously illustrated with cartoons, photographs and etchings of the time.

Table of Contents

Introduction; I. VICTORIAN DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES: 1. A Golden Street in Marvellous Melbourne; 2. The Lush 1880s; 3. The Perilous Course of Events; 4. The Hungry 1890s; 5. Victorian Politics 1875–1895; 6. F. T. Derham, Postmaster-General and Speculator; 7. The Curious Case of the City Road Property Co.; 8. The Chaffey Brothers and the Mildura Crash; 9. The Railway and Tramway Boom; 10. The Run on Goldsborough Mort; 11. Wild Days on the Stock Exchange; 12. James Balfour Floats Away; 13. When McEwan’s Floated and Fell; 14. The Boom and Crash in Sydney; II THE MUCKRAKERS: 15. Maurice Brodzky, Editor of Table Talk; 16. The Meudell Mystery; III THE BUILDING SOCIETY SCANDALS: 17. John Bellin and the General Mutual Building Society; 18. James Mirams and the Premier Building Association; 19. Matthias Larkin and the South Melbourne Building Society; 20. William McLean and the Melbourne Permanent Building Society; 21. James Hunt and the Modern Permanent Building Society; 22. J. B. Lawrence and the Australian Widows Fund; IV. THE BANKING SCANDALS: 23. C. H. James and the Dominion Bank; 24. Frederick Illingworth and the Centennial Bank; 25. G. N. Taylor and the Land Credit Bank; 26. William Greenlaw and the Colonial Bank; 27. Joseph Clarke Invests in the Kooweerup Swamp; 28. Sir Benjamin Benjamin and the Imperial Bank; 29. C. R. Staples and the Anglo-Australian Bank; 30. Henry Hayter and the Metropolitan Bank; 31. Colin Longmuir and the City of Melbourne Bank; 32. H. G. Turner and the Commercial Bank; V. THE MUNRO-BAILLIEU-FINK GROUP: 33. James Munro and His Clan; 34. Munro & Baillieu, Partners in Audacity; 35. W. L. Baillieu, the Triumphant Survivor; 36. Edward Latham the Brewer; 37. Keeping the Federal Bank in the Family; 38. Theodore Fink, a Solicitor of the Rialto; 39. Benjamin Fink, the Greatest of Them All; 40. Georges of Collins Street; 41. G. W. Taylor, Another Land-Booming Mayor of Prahran; 42. Mark Moss, Temporary King of Norwood Castle; VI. THE MATTHEW DAVIES GROUP: 43. The Rise and Fall of Sir Matthew Davies; 44. The Network of Davies Companies; 45. The Mercantile Bank Cases; 46. How Thomas Bent Escaped the Net; 47. The Cautionary Tale of David Munro; VII. FINALE: 48. Church, Society and State; 49. Feeding the Hungry; 50. Reforms and Remedies; Appendices; Sources; Bibliography; Sources of Illustrations; Index

About the Author

Michael Cannon spent nearly twenty years working as a journalist and editor in Melbourne, Sydney and London. After the success of the first edition of The Land Boomers, he produced a steady stream of popular books on many aspects of Australian history. Michael Cannon is foundation editor of the official documentary series Historical Records of Victoria and his most recent work, The woman as murderer, was published in 1994.

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978-0-522-84663-8