"The Impressions remaining from earlier Injuries are kept up by the occasional Outrages of Miscreants whose Scene of Crime is so remote as to render detection difficult; and who sometimes wantonly fire at and kill the Men and at others pursue the Women, for the purpose of compelling them to abandon their Children."

 A pair of pandanis, Lake Dobson, Mt Field National Park, Tasmania, April 2021.

Van Diemen's Land by James Boyce

This book is a worthwhile addition to the works on the early history of what is now called Tasmania. With a primary focus on the first generation of invaders - both convicts and colonisers - while somewhat saddened to find that it is a bit light-on in detail on the island's original inhabitants, the brief glimpse we get is sound.

Of more central focus, Boyce explores the significance of the convict presence to the evolution of Van Diemen’s Land. He helps explain the strange Weltanschauung that compelled a tiny group of landowners to expunge both convict and Aboriginal from the formal records and popular memory.

Such efforts - including the renaming of the island to Tasmania in 1856 - were not without success. However, I think that Boyce is correct when he observes that "Van Diemen's Land never vanished but, by edict of an embarrassed ruling class, it went underground."

I particularly appreciated the effort made to explore the impact of the environment on establishing the colony and vice versa. For example, the speed with which small bands of settlers and convicts managed to establish themselves at the expense of Aboriginal inhabitants and the native fauna is shocking in hindsight. Similarly, the extent of the lawlessness of bushrangers and the brutality of Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur's brutal assault on the Aborigines surprised me.

Indeed, the book provides an essential exploration of the environmental impact of displacing the original custodians. Populations of feral dogs eliminated the native emu and severely dented other vulnerable species. The end of managed burns led to more damaging bushfires and the further penetration of invasive weeds and introduced trees.

I want to draw attention to the lengthy appendix to this book: "Towards Genocide: Government Policy on the Aborigines 1827-38", a sad and sobering read that should be compulsory to all Tasmanians. If they are not providing this to high school students, we are not fair dinkum about learning from history.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2