Foreword

I was once told by a patronising Englishman that the trouble with Australia was that too much geography and not enough history. I have often thought about those comments and retrospectively rehearsed what I might have said in response. But clearly the observation is not really relevant to Tasmania. Although a small Island with only a modest population it has a remarkably rich tradition of historical literature. Every generation since the 1830s has produced books of merit many of which can still be read with interest today. John West's history written in 1852 was without question the best historical work produced anywhere in Colonial Australia. It was a celebration of the success of colonisation but it also included. a long elegiac section on the fate of the Aborigines. And many other 19th century writers, men Iike Calder, Bonwick and Melville, took up the subject of the Black War and its aftermath and are essential reading still. They all expressed sympathy for the. dispossessed indigenous tribes and what is more they showed respect and even admiration for the vigour and courage of the resistance. They regarded them as patriots and martyrs. It was a view that was distinctly Tasmanian with no close parallel anywhere else in the Colonies. It comes closer to the historical traditions of New Zealand