Dimensions
108 x 141 x 16mm
2 cassettes
The explorers of Australia tell an epic story of courage and suffering, of dispossession and conquest, of a moving frontier between European invaders and the Aborigines who had been living on this continent for thousands of years. Tim Flannery's utterly compelling anthology, documenting almost four centuries of exploration, takes us beyond the frontier into a world of danger, compassion, humour, brutality and death.
Many of the stories in this book beggar belief: Charles Sturt weathering grotesque desert heat, the Maori chief Te Pahi saving the lives of condemned thieves in Sydney in 1805, the ruthless massacre of Aborigines by the Jardine brothers in north Queensland. We hear how Hume and Hovell argued over their frying pan, how a convict rescued Eliza Fraser and how John Ainsworth Horrocks was shot by his camel. Here, in one place, is the most remarkable body of non-fiction writing ever produced in Australia.
