This is the first detailed examination of land alienation and land use by white settlers in an Australian colony. It treats the first decades of settlement in Van Diemen's Land, encompassing the effects of the European invasion on Aboriginal society, the early history of environmental degradation, the island's society history and the growth of primary industry. The book presents vivid insights into nineteenth-century society, where wool was so useless that it was burnt, and farmers lived in fear of bushrangers and Aborigines. We see how individuals were constrained by the rigid expectations of race, class and gender in a society where no white man ever stood trial for rape or murder of a black. Drawing on contemporary diaries and letters, as well as government statistics, manuals for intending settlers and newspaper reports, Sharon Morgan has built up a comprehensive picture of the significance of landscape and land use in early colonial society.

First published in 1969. The original History of Australian Land Settlement, 1788-1920 was published in Melbourne in 1924, when the writer was a young lecturer in British History in the University of Melbourne. As the years and decades went by, more and more work was done to fill in research gaps and there were of necessity many re interpretations. This particularly applied to the initial squatting period and to the then-unknown stage between the gold discoveries and federation. This is a copy of the original version.

Large print.

Australian facsimile ed No 102, reproduced by the Libraries Board of South Australia.

James Fenton (1820-1901) was born in Ireland and emigrated to Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land) with his family in 1833. He became a pioneer settler in an area on the Forth River and published this history of the island in 1884. The book begins with the discovery of the island in 1642 and concludes with the deaths of some significant public figures in the colony in 1884. The establishment of the colony on the island, and the involvement of convicts in its building, is documented. A chapter on the native aborigines gives a fascinating insight into the attitudes of the colonising people, and a detailed account of the removal of the native Tasmanians to Flinders Island, in an effort to separate them from the colonists. The book also contains portraits of some aboriginal people, as well as a glossary of their language.

Winner of the 2009 Tasmania Book Prize Winner of the 2008 Colin Roderick Award 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 book, James Boyce shows how the convicts 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. Shortlisted in the 2009 Prime Minister's Literary Awards, the 2009 NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the 2010 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, the 2008 Age Book of the Year Awards, the 2008 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the 2008 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, the 2008 NSW Premier's History Awards and the 2008 Australian Book Industry Awards ‘A brilliant book and a must-read for anyone interested in how land shapes people.’ —Tim Flannery ‘The most significant colonial history since The Fatal Shore. In re-imagining Australia's past, it invents a new future.’ —Richard Flanagan ‘Like the best history, Van Diemen's Land is not an artfully constructed narrative with the (inevitably inadequate) evidence banished to endnotes, but a dialogue between historian and reader as they explore the fragile sources, and the silences, together.’ —Inga Clendinnen ‘The publication of Van Diemen's Land signals an entirely fresh approach to Australian history-writing ... This is a brilliant publication.’ —Alan Atkinson ‘A fresh and sparkling account.’ —Henry Reynolds James Boyce is the multiple award-winning author of Born Bad, 1835 and Van Diemen’s Land. He has a PhD from the University of Tasmania, where he is an honorary research associate of the School of Geography and Environmental Studies.