Van Diemen’s Land‘A brilliant book and a must-read for anyone interested in how land shapes people’ —Tim Flannery New edition with a foreword by Richard Flanagan Almost half of the convicts who came to Australia came to Van Diemen’s Land. There they found a land of bounty and a penal society, a kangaroo economy and a new way of life. In this multi-award-winning history of colonial Tasmania, James Boyce shows how the newcomers were changed by the natural world they encountered. Escaping authority, they soon settled away from the towns, dressing in kangaroo skin and living off the land. Behind the official attempt to create a Little England was another story of adaptation, in which the poor, the exiled and the criminal made a new home in a strange land. This is their story, the story of Van Diemen’s Land. ‘The most significant colonial history since The Fatal Shore. In re-imagining Australia’s past, it invents a new future.’ —Richard Flanagan ‘Tasmania is only a short flight from where I live, but I have never been there. Now I will go, because its grasslands, mountains, bays and islands have become real to me, each territory with its own history and bearing the subtle scars of its particular past.’ —Inga Clendinnen |
Contents
Map of Van Diemens Land | |
The Early Years 180307 | |
The Making of Van Diemens Land 180823 | |
Van Diemens Land Conquered 182438 | |
Van Diemens Land or Tasmania? 183956 | |
Conclusion | |
Government Policy on | |
Chief Executives of Van Diemens Land 180361 | |
References | |
Index | |
Picture and Map Credits | |
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Common terms and phrases
Aborigines Committee AOT CSO AOT NS arrived Arthur Australian Bass Strait became British bush bushrangers captured colony Convicts Unbound cultural Curr Derwent Desailly Diary Diemen’s Land Diemonian dogs early economic England executive council fire Flinders Island former convicts free settlers Friendly Mission G.P. Harris George George Augustus Robinson government’s grasslands grassy woodlands History of Tasmania Hobart Town Hobart Town Gazette hunters huts immigrants Irish James John journal kangaroo killed labour Land Commissioners Launceston Letters lieutenant governor living London Macquarie Harbour Mannalargenna Meredith natives November official Papers and Proceedings Paterson penal Plomley population Port Dalrymple Port Phillip prisoners remained removal reported Reverend Robert Knopwood Risdon Cove River Robert Knopwood Robinson Robson sealers servants settled districts settlement sheep social society South Wales stock-keepers Sydney Tasmanian Aborigines Tasmanian Historical THRA Papers University of Tasmania Van Diemen’s Land West William women wrote