The Australians Who Tried to Build a New Australia in Paraguay

Australia was not only a place people migrated to. At one point, it exported a utopian dream of its own. In the 1890s, a group of Australians followed radical socialist William Lane to Paraguay to create a settlement called New Australia. The story is unfamiliar to many readers, but it is worth telling because it reveals an often forgotten fact: some Australians once tried to escape Australia.

Late nineteenth-century Australia was not the prosperous, relaxed country later imagined by many. There were shearers’ strikes, economic depression, drought, labour conflict and colonial government crackdowns. Lane and his followers believed they could build a fairer, purer, more cooperative society in South America. Hundreds of people left Australia for Paraguay in search of a different future.

The story smells strongly of idealism, but also of inevitable failure. Once utopia leaves speeches and pamphlets and enters ordinary life, it must deal with land, climate, disease, labour, sex, alcohol, discipline, authority and human weakness. Being disappointed with capitalism, colonial politics or class hierarchy in Australia did not automatically make someone a good member of a perfect community in Paraguay.

The failure of New Australia is not merely comic. It is a warning. No ideal society can be sustained by moral passion alone. A community needs institutions, tolerance, ways of handling difference and a realistic understanding of human limitation. If a utopia demands too much purity from its members, it is often defeated by ordinary human desire.

This article can be deeper than some of the animal stories or hoaxes in the series. These people were not simply joking. They risked their lives, families and futures. They crossed an ocean with belief and disappointment, hoping to build a “new Australia” on another continent. It was absurd, but also serious.

Seen from today, the story remains relevant. Many people dissatisfied with existing societies imagine that a new place, platform, community or political arrangement will solve the problem. But when people move, they bring part of the old problem with them. Geography alone cannot complete a spiritual migration.

If you want to continue with early Australian instability, read Australia’s Only Military Coup Was Called the Rum Rebellion. For another story about rational planning collapsing in reality, continue with The Expedition with Rum, Camels and an Oak Table.

Sources: ABC News; NSW Migration Heritage Centre.