Why was South Australia intended to be different from Australian convict colonies?

South Australia was established as an experimental colony designed to be fundamentally different from existing Australian penal settlements, which were defined by the practice of transporting convicts.

The colony was based on the theory of "systematic colonization" developed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Its primary intentions included:

• Removing the "stain of convictism": The founders sought to create a colony free from the policy of transporting convicts, aiming to establish a society based on free labor rather than penal servitude.12
• Respectable Emigration: The project was intended to make emigration a more certain and respectable enterprise for ordinary British citizens.12
• Economic Synchronization: Wakefield advocated for a careful synchronization between the sale of land at a fixed, "sufficient" price and the introduction of capital and labor. This was meant to ensure that landowners maximized land value through cultivation while laborers contributed their energy before becoming landowners themselves.13
• Civil and Religious Freedoms: Promoters emphasized utopian ideals, including equality of creeds and political liberties, aiming to make the province a respectable extension of the mother country.123