This paper will consider the impact of Irish land politics on the Australian colony of Victoria in the 1850s-70s, principally through the activities of Charles Gavan Duffy. A former Young Irelander and a leader of the Irish Tenant League (1850-5), Duffy arrived in Melbourne in 1856 and sought to rebuild his political career there. It will address Duffy’s attempts to develop a land policy appropriate to Australian conditions and balancing political affiliation to the Irish-Australian 'party' led by John O’Shanassy with a desire to harness the political energies of the radical Victorian Land Convention, as manifested during his periods as Minister for Public Lands (1857, 1858-9, 1861-3) and Premier (1871-2). Through this the paper aims to offer reflections on the transnational dimensions of Irish agrarian politics, and the tensions and compromises this involved in a settler colonial society marked by ethnic, religious and class differences and debates over treatment of the expropriated indigenous population.

Peter Gray is Professor of Modern Irish History and Director of the Institute of Irish Studies at QUB. He has published widely on the history of the Great Irish Famine, and on Irish welfare and political history, and has recently completed the monograph William Sharman Crawford and Ulster Radicalism (UCD Press, 2023).