Editing History of Australia (section)

==== Free settlers ====
[[File:Caroline Chisholm.jpg|thumb|The humanitarian [[Caroline Chisholm]] was a leading advocate for women's issues and family friendly colonial policy.]]

The Bigge reforms also aimed to encourage free settlers by offering them land grants in proportion to their capital. From 1831, the colonies replaced land grants with land sales by auction at a fixed minimum price per acre, the proceeds being used to fund the assisted migration of workers. From 1821 to 1850, Australia attracted 200,000 immigrants from the United Kingdom. However, the system of land allocations led to the concentration of land in the hands of a small number of affluent settlers.<ref>Ford, Lisa; Roberts, David Andrew (2013). pp. 122, 126–7, 131, 135–36</ref>

Two-thirds of the migrants to Australia during this period received assistance from the British or colonial governments.<ref>Haines, Robin, and Ralph Shlomowitz. "Nineteenth century government-assisted and total immigration from the United Kingdom to Australia: quinquennial estimates by colony." ''Journal of the Australian Population Association'', vol. 8, no. 1, 1991, pp. 50–61. ''JSTOR'', www.jstor.org/stable/41110599. Accessed 20 July 2021.</ref> Families of convicts were also offered free passage and about 3,500 migrants were selected under the [[English Poor Laws]]. Various special-purpose and charitable schemes, such as those of [[Caroline Chisholm]] and [[John Dunmore Lang]], also provided migration assistance.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Richards|first=Eric|title=How Did Poor People Emigrate from the British Isles to Australia in the Nineteenth Century?|jstor=176082|journal=Journal of British Studies|volume=32|issue=3|date=July 1993|pages=250–279|doi=10.1086/386032|s2cid=162223882}}</ref>