Grahame, Stewart.

Where socialism failed : an actual experiment. With illustrations and a map / by Stewart Grahame [pseud.] London : Murray, 1913.

This is an account of "New Australia" or, "Cosme" an Australian socialist settlement formed in Paraguay in 1893. The leader was William Lane, the author of the utopian novel, Workingman's paradise (Brisbane, 1892). There were personality conflicts and Lane left in 1899. By 1905 the settlement had disintegrated although many of the people remained. Some of their descendants still live in Paraguay.

Chapter 1 of Grahame's book begins with some background to the Australian radical movement.

The Australian Socialist party commenced its career as an active fighting force in 1889, the first manifestation of its might falling like a bombshell, not at home, but in Great Britain. When the London dock labourers came out on strike … it was freely prophesied that sheer starvation would drive them back to work within a short time. The prophets were disappointed however, for, to the surprise of most people in England, including the strikers themselves, their meagre funds were reinforced by a contribution of £30,000 cabled from Brisbane, and, thus assisted, the dock labourers gained the day. (p. 1)

This donation was organised by William Lane, the editor of The Boomerang, a radical weekly published in Brisbane, which promoted the works of Karl Marx, Edward Bellamy, and Henry George. Lane was the founder of the Australasian Labour Federation. The "Cosme" colony was organised on communistic lines by Lane's New Australia Co-operative Settlement Association. Apart from Lane himself, the poet Mary Gilmore was the most prominent member.