I read a lot of Australian history but I don't class myself as an expert. Alas, as a science student, I never really studied Australian History either at school or at University. So my history education has been via the many books written by assorted historians over many years, each focusing on one particular aspect of our long and complex history as an English Colony.
Not as provocative as Robert Hughes' 1987 classic The Fatal Shore, which tells the story of white invasion for what is really was, Keneally takes a more scholarly approach, skilfully using the many diaries and official documents of the time to tell the story in a somewhat detached manner. But that is good. It allows the reader to focus on the actual colonisation itself rather than get lost in the politics of it all.
Here is the blurb:
It was 1786 when Arthur Phillip, an ambitious captain in the Royal Navy, was assigned the formidable task of organizing an expedition to Australia in order to establish a penal colony. The squalid and turbulent prisons of London were overflowing, and crime was on the rise. Even the hulks sifting at anchor in the Thames were packed with malcontent criminals and petty thieves. So the English government decided to undertake the unprecedented move of shipping off its convicts to a largely unexplored landmass at the other end of the world.
Using the personal journals and documents that were kept during this expedition, historian/novelist Thomas Keneally re-creates the grueling overseas voyage, a hellish, suffocating journey that claimed the lives of many convicts. Miraculously, the fleet reached the shores of what was then called New South Wales in 1788, and after much trial and error, the crew managed to set up a rudimentary yet vibrant settlement. As governor of the colony, Phillip took on the challenges of dealing with unruly convicts, disgruntled officers, a bewildered, sometimes hostile native population, as well as such serious matters as food shortages and disease. Moving beyond Phillip, Keneally offers captivating portrayals of Aborigines, who both aided and opposed Phillip, and of the settlers, including convicts who were determined to overcome their pasts and begin anew.
With the authority of a renowned historian and the narrative grace of a brilliant novelist, Thomas Keneally offers an insider’s perspective into the dramatic saga of the birth of a vibrant society in an unfamiliar land. A Commonwealth of Thieves immerses us in the fledgling penal colony and conjures up colorful scenes of the joy and heartbreak, the thrills and hardships that characterized those first four improbable years. The result is a lively and engrossing work of history, as well as a tale of redemption for the thousands of convicts who started new lives thousands of miles from their homes.
The story is one that all Australians know in part but Keneally fleshes it out wonderfully to elaborate in minute detail the complete story of Phillip's time as Governor. One of the most interesting sidelines is his friendship with local aboriginal Woolawarre Bennelong. The description of the relationship between the two explores the local Eora/aboriginal lives and culture and sheds much valuable light on something lost, of which most Australians are ignorant.
It finishes with Phillip's departure from the fledgling colony after 4 short years, which is a bit frustrating. If you want to continue to read the story of the early colony and the many governors, some good and some bad, who followed, there are plenty of books and so much to be said about subsequent things like the Rum Rebellion, Port Arthur, etc. I am lucky enough to have in my library the 1985 Edition of A History of Australia V1-V6, by C.M.H. (Manning) Clark. This is in many ways the definitive text. Other books in my library include Geoffrey Blainey's A Shorter History of Australia and The Tyranny of Distance.
No comments:
Post a Comment