On 27 October 1852, John Dunmore Lang, a Scottish-born Australian Presbyterian minister, writer, historian, politician and activist, published the first major argument for an Australian republic and his best-known work, Freedom and Independence for the Golden Lands of Australia.
John Dunmore Lang was born on 25 August 1799 at Greenock, Scotland and was the first prominent advocate of an independent Australian nation and of Australian republicanism.
In lectures delivered in Sydney in April 1850 Lang proclaimed his republicanism for the Australian colonies. This republicanism was due partly to his belief in the necessity of local self-rule, because he thought all government from a distance was bad government, and partly to his recent treatment by the British government and his dislike of aristocratic influences in English society and politics.
In 1850, with aid from Henry Parkes and other radicals Lang founded the Australian League to encourage a sense of national identity and to resist any further convict transportation.
The title Freedom and Independence for the Golden Lands of Australia has become an established slogan of political radicalism and republicanism in Australia.
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