Media: BOOK - hardcover, 416 pages
Author: J. Boyce
Year: 2018
ISBN: 9781760640781
Other: b&w & colour photos, maps, appendixes, index
Publisher: Black Inc Press

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.

This book is a book filled with facts and ideas about one of the most dramatic episodes in British colonialism. It tells of changing relations between bushrangers and lieutenant governor, convicts and Aborigines, and of the growth of a unique society.

In this 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.

Contents:
Map of Van Diemen's Land
Map of Tasmania in the 1850s
Map of tribal boundaries of the Tasmanian Aborigines
Foreword: A History of Hope

Introduction
Part 1: The Early Years 1803-07
 - Van Diemonian Sea-Wolves
 - The Settlement of the Derwent
 - How Shall we Sing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land?
 - A Kangaroo Economy
Part 2: The Making of Van Diemen's Land 1808-23
 - Access Without Conquest
 - The Lieutenant Governor of the Woods
 - Cross-Cultural Encounters
 - The "Savage Life" of the Van Diemonians
 - Food, Clothing and Shelter
 - Wine, Women and Song
Part 3: Van Diemen's Land Conquered 1824-38
 - The Coming of Little England
 - Controlling the Convicts
 - Imposing Dependence
 - Fighting the Aborigines
Part 4: Van Diemen's Land or Tasmania? 1839-56
 - The Triumph of Little England
 - The Survival of Van Diemen's Land
 - The End of Transportation
 - Victoria's Van Diemonian Foundation
Appendix: Towards Genocide, Government Policy on the Aborigines 1827-38
 - Partition or Exile?
 - The Removal of the Aborigines in a Time of War
 - The Removal of the Aborigines in a Time of Peace
 - Postscript: The Final Conquest
Chief Executives of Van Diemen's Land 1803-61
Acknowledgements
Notes
References
Index
Picture and Map Credits

Reviews:
'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 Flanangan