Taming the Great South Land: A History of the Conquest of Nature in AustraliaTaming the Great South Land is the first full-length landscape history of an entire continent occupied by one nation. It is also, in William Lines's telling, a brutal and controversial story. Examining the ways European society rapidly, radically transformed Australia's physical and human landscapes, the author writes candidly of repeated environmental devastation--from the early slaughter of seals and whales to the destructive spread of sheep, through gold rushes and land settlement to British nuclear tests and the modern mining and timber industries. Lines shows how Enlightenment ideas of progress, economic growth, and development were reconstructed on Australian soil, and how the promise of the conquest of nature became a mockery in fact, resulting in the mass dislocation and destruction of indigenous populations. This shocking narrative, thoroughly researched and accessibly written, combines environmental, social, and political history to hard-hitting effect. Taming the Great South Land is the first full-length landscape history of an entire continent occupied by one nation. It is also, in William Lines's telling, a brutal and controversial story. Examining the ways European society rapidly, radically transformed Australia's physical and human landscapes, the author writes candidly of repeated environmental devastation--from the early slaughter of seals and whales to the destructive spread of sheep, through gold rushes and land settlement to British nuclear tests and the modern mining and timber industries. Lines shows how Enlightenment ideas of progress, economic growth, and development were reconstructed on Australian soil, and how the promise of the conquest of nature became a mockery in fact, resulting in the mass dislocation and destruction of indigenous populations. This shocking narrative, thoroughly researched and accessibly written, combines environmental, social, and political history to hard-hitting effect. |
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Taming the Great South Land: A History of the Conquest of Nature in Australia William J. Lines No preview available - 1999 |
Common terms and phrases
000 hectares Aborigines Adelaide agricultural American Austra Australian governments Banks Bass Strait became began Britain British bush capital capitalist cattle century civilisation claimed coast colony colony's conquest conservation continued convicts destruction Diemen's Land drought earth economic Empire environment environmental eucalyptus European exploitation farm farmers favour federal forest Fraser Island green bans hectares huge human ibid increased industry irrigation Island Japanese kangaroos killed labour Lake Pedder landscape later living mallee Maralinga Melbourne ment million hectares mineral mining native nature nuclear numbers organised pastoral percent Perth plants police political politicians population Prime Minister profit protest Queensland rabbits Reef ringbarking River scheme scientific seals settlement settlers sheep social society soil South Australia South Wales species square kilometres squatters Sydney Tasmania Tasmanian timber tion transnational trees uranium Van Diemen's Land Victoria Western Australia whales wheat wilderness woodchipping
Bibliographic information
| Title | Taming the Great South Land: A History of the Conquest of Nature in Australia |
| Authors | William J Lines, William J. Lines |
| Contributor | David Suzuki |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | University of California Press, 1991 |
| ISBN | 0520078306, 9780520078307 |
| Length | 337 pages |
| Subjects | › Nature / Ecology |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |