Friendly Mission: The Tasmanian Journals and Papers of George Augustus Robinson, 1829-1834

FRIENDLY MISSION: THE TASMANIAN JOURNALS AND PAPERS OF GEORGE AUGUSTUS ROBINSON, 1829 - 1834, edited by NJB Plomley, was first published in 1966. This monumental and controversial work has long been recognised as a major source document of Australian colonial history. Covering Robinson's activities from 1829-34, Friendly Mission describes his conciliation attempts with the Tasmanian Aborigines and their subsequent relocation to Flinders Island. Even as the island's Aboriginal population was being decimated by the policies, diseases and social influences of the European settlers - and Robinson has been considered complicit in their demise - his brilliantly detailed journals were destined to become an important record of the lives and customs of those people. The 2008 republication of Friendly Mission, by the Queen Victorian Museum and Art Gallery and Quintus Publishing, contains material omitted from the first edition and has an extensive new index, to enable researchers and general readers alike significantly improved access to this enormous, valuable work.