| ISBN |
9781925588309 (paperback) |
| Author |
Ferguson, James Alexander (author.) |
| Title |
Squatting : romance & reality / James Ferguson. |
| Other title |
Squatting : romance and reality |
| Publisher and/or associated date/s |
North Melbourne, Victoria : Arcadia, 2017. |
| Description |
xi, 261 pages, 18 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some colour), portraits (some colour) ; 23 cm. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-250) and index. |
| Contents |
List of illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- Beyond the coastal plain --Initial efforts at control -- Limits of location: a policy failure -- A developing commercial colony -- Across Bass Strait and through Australia felix -- Not for the faint hearted -- The rapid development of Port Phillip -- The Clarence and the Darling Downs -- Clash of cultures -- Rural life becomes more regular -- Boom and bust -- Gipps takes on the squatters -- From squatting to the squattocracy -- Weighing the balance. |
| Summary |
South-eastern Australia, outside the Sydney coastal plain, was settled through squatting in a remarkably rapid development driven by individual initiative in the face of government efforts at control. This book covers the political dilemma faced by government in regulating a movement that undermined the primary purpose of the colony as a penal settlement and led to conflict with the native people. Told largely in the words of those involved, it outlines the difficulties colonial governors had in convincing London that circumstances were changing and required governance. James Ferguson describes what the squatting life was like, how stations were founded and developed, where the squatters came from, and what kinds of people they were. Their rugged individualism did much to form the Australian character, and theirs is a story of courage and determination, but also of tragedy as economic progress led to the degradation of the land and destruction of the Aboriginal way of life. |
| Subjects |
Settlement and contacts - Colonisation |
| Settlement and contacts -- Explorers |
| Race relations - Racial discrimination |
| Land rights - Pastoral industry |
| Mining industry |
| Pioneers -- New South Wales |
| Frontier and pioneer life -- New South Wales |
| Aboriginal Australians, Treatment of -- New South Wales |
| Land tenure -- New South Wales |
| Squatter settlements -- New South Wales |
| Frontier and pioneer life -- Australia, Southeastern |
| Clarence Town (NSW N Coast SI56-02) |
| Bass Strait (SJ55, SK55) |
| Port Phillip / Western Port area (Vic SJ55) |
| River Murray (SW NSW, N Vic, SE SA SI54, SI55) |
| Hunter River (NSW N Coast SI56-01, SH56-13) |
| Murrumbidgee River (SW NSW SI54, SI55) |
| Call number |
2020.262 |
