Conclusion

Abstract

The food, drink and other consumer goods—the portable material culture—that people wanted and needed in the early Australian colonies were structured by cultural preferences. Those who had money could obtain at least some goods and thus demonstrate their command over material objects. For those who didn’t have the money, material goods acted as an incentive for betterment within a growing global market economy. This reinforced the ideology of consumerism and associated notions of prosperity. It also articulates with the banner headline of the Sydney Gazette newspaper, “Thus we hope to prosper”.

Cargo manifests included many items that would have helped to make the colonial outpost more like the country and homeland that settlers had left behind.

(Kenderdine, 1995: 7)