Frank Welsh - Great Southern Land: A New History of Australia

Great Southern Land

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

The Profit of the State

The Afflicted State

Uneasy City

Building the Trireme

First Blood

The Companion Guide to the Lake District

A History of Hong Kong

Dangerous Deceits

A History of South Africa

The Four Nations

FRANK WELSH

Great Southern Land

A New History of Australia

ALLEN LANE

an imprint of

PENGUIN BOOKS

ALLEN LANE

Published by the Penguin Group
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First published 2004
1

Copyright Frank Welsh, 2004

The moral right of the author has been asserted

All rights reserved.
Without limiting the rights under copyright
reserved above, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior
written permission of both the copyright owner and
the above publisher of this book

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

EISBN: 9780141909783

For Lotte and Harry

Photographic acknowledgements are given in parentheses.

Where to begin? In the last six years or so of writing, generous help has been proffered by many people and organizations. Much of my research has been done in Sydneys State and Mitchell Libraries, whose staff have for long been patiently helpful, and whose library, shop and tea room are patterns of their kind. Thanks are also due to the staff of the La Trobe Collection in the Victoria State Library, the Battye Library in Perth, the John Oxley Library in Brisbane, the National Library and the National War Memorial in Canberra, the New South Wales Records Office, the Mortlock Library and the Art Gallery in Adelaide and the Darwin Museum and Library, the British Library, the Public Records Office and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in London, the Cambridge and Durham University Libraries and Rhodes House Oxford. In the USA thanks are due to Hugh Howard of the State Department Archives, the staff of the Library of Congress and the National Archives in Washington and the George Bush Library in College Station, Texas. Robert Maxtone Graham provided one essential reference and Dick Brown an equally essential illustration.

Advice and guidance was welcomed from Robert Lawrie, Roger Bell, Elizabeth Warburton, Angus Trumble, Gerard Henderson and Bob MacIllrae. Henry Reynolds and Carl Bridges suggestions, corrections and emendations were invaluable: any errors remaining are due entirely to my own carelessness or perversity (or, as Dr Johnson was not ashamed to admit ignorance Madam, pure ignorance).

Hospitality from family and friends was essential, and greatly appreciated; to all the Eltringhams in Horsham, Fishers in Melbourne, Gaskells and Welshes in Sydney and Hoods in Brisbane, many thanks for sheltering and feeding Agnes and me, for indeed without them this book could not have been attempted. Getting to and from Australia was rendered slightly less painful by Jill Weston of Thomas Cook.

Both Stuart Proffitt and Liz Friend-Smith at Penguin Press have done far more than any reasonable person could expect in reading drafts and providing support and encouragement: Elizabeth Stratford performed the appalling task of copy-editing an idiosyncratic typescript, which she bore with admirable fortitude, and Richard Duguid faced the authors quibbles with calm forbearance. But when all is said and done, without the patient industry of Agnes, ably seconded by Kirsten, this book would never have been finished.