Wunderbar Country: Germans Look at Australia, 1850–1914

Wunderbar Country (1982) examines the experiences of Australia’s second largest migrant community, the Germans. Many Germans saw Australia as a land of social equality and mobility, with unlimited resources and economic possibilities. This book analyses Australian social legislation and the labour movement, the subject of much debate in Germany. Articles present both sides to an argument, with some stating that Australia was indeed a workers’ paradise, the home of social progress; others point to miserable working conditions. It also deals with the experiences of immigrants from Germany to this new land: rural life in Bong Bong; a meeting with Ned Kelly; Adelaide in the 1850s; the wild gold town of Ballarat.