Readings.com.au: James Boyce

1835: The Founding Of Melbourne And The Conquest Of Australia

In 1835 an illegal squatter camp was established on the banks of the Yarra River. In defiance of authorities in London and Sydney, Tasmanian speculators began sending men and sheep across Bass Strait – and so changed the shape of Australian history. Before the founding of Melbourne, British settlement on the mainland amounted to a few pinpoints on a map. Ten years later, it had become a sea of red.

In 1835 James Boyce brings this pivotal moment to life. He traces the power plays in Hobart, Sydney and London, the key personalities of Melbourne’s early days, and the haunting questions raised by what happened when the land was opened up. He conjures up the Australian frontier – its complexity, its rawness and the way its legacy is still with us today.

Praise for 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

“A brilliant book and a must-read for anyone interested in how land shapes people.”—Tim Flannery

“Boyce’s Van Diemen’s Land is a triumph.”—The Sydney Morning Herald

“A fascinating, splendidly realised piece of history.”—The Adelaide Review

“A remarkable work”—The Canberra Times

Van Diemen's Land

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.

Van Diemen's Land: A History

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.

Van Diemen's Land: A History

'The most significant colonial history since The Fatal. In re-imagining Australia's past, it invents a new future.' - Richard Flanagan

'The first ecologically based social history of colonial Australia, showing how wallabies led to liberty, and the bush became a true home for desperate men. A brilliant book and a must-read for anyone interested in how land shapes people.'-Tim Flannery

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 Van Diemen's Land, 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.