Taming the Great South Land: A History of the Conquest of Nature in AustraliaTaming the Great South Land is a profound new history of Australia. It tells the story of two centuries of European settlement from the point of view of the land and its indigenous people. Taming the Great South Land is a powerful and pioneering study and, in the tradition The Fatal Shore, is compelling reading. William Lines combines environmental, social and political history to record 200 years of implacable exploitation of nature. He traces how the Enlightenment ideas of progress, economic growth and development were transported to Australia and employed in the conquest of nature. From the early slaughter of seals, through land settlement and the gold rushes to British nuclear tests and the modern mining and timber industries, the results of the conquest are written on our landscape. They have been felt most keenly by the indigenous population of the continent. But this is not a uniquely Australian story: its pattern runs through the history of the developed countries of the world. Taming the Great South Land is an epic saga of the human impact on the Australian environment. |
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Contents
Terra Incognita | 14 |
No Eden | 27 |
A camping ground for profit | 54 |
Dark deeds in a sunny land | 88 |
To the firing line | 127 |
An undeveloped enterprise | 163 |
World quarry | 196 |
Not by conquest | 232 |
Epilogue | 271 |
303 | |
Illustration credits | 321 |
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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 Canberra 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 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 rainforest 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 York