Tasmania has some of the best preserved colonial buildings in Australia. Set in beautiful surroundings, these World Heritage Sites hide a dark history from the times when convict labour was vital to the economy of the Australian colonies. The volcanic islands in the southern oceans are the locations of Australia’s only active volcanoes, and provide geologists and other scientists with information about the way the Earth’s molten interior is still coming to the surface to create new land on Australia’s territorial islands. ABOUT THE WORLD HERITAGE SITES IN AUSTRALIA SERIES The titles in World Heritage Sites in Australia cover magnificent natural locations, precious historic buildings and places that contain rare archaeological remains. Australians treasure their heritage sites, and this series reveals where each site is located and what makes it so special. Find out how UNESCO chooses World Heritage Sites, and what listings mean for the countries involved. Included in this series are sections on Indigenous culture, sustainability, environmental management and the importance of place, all of which will support the Australian Curriculum for primary schools.

His Natural Life has retained Australian classic status for over one hundred years. Scarcely ever out of print since first written during the early 1870s, it has provided successive generations with a vivid account of a brutal phase of colonial life. The main focus of this great convict novel is the complex interaction between those in power and those who suffer, made meaningful because of its hero's struggle against the destructiveness of his wrongful imprisonment. While much of the story is necessarily grim, Marcus Clarke has used elements of romance, incidents of family life and passages of scenic description to both relieve and give emphasis to the tragedy that forms its heart.