'In searching for the origins of the Australian ethos it is tempting to regard convicts and "old hands" as the seedbed of Australian political democracy as well as part of the humus that nourished mateship and egalitarianism. While, as Russel Ward documents in The Australian Legend, many Australian social attitudes data back to convict days, the origin of Australian political democracy followed urban English rather than American or Australian frontier patterns.' (Thesis description)
