More a Symbol Than a Success

Foundation Years of the Swan River Colony

by D. Markey

Westbooks, 1977, [Revised], ISBN 0859220125, fold-out maps at rear, paperback

Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, some creasing, chipping and a little damage to top of spine,  (see photographs)

“A new geography was made in the south west of Western Australia during the nineteenth century.  Aboriginal tribes had dwelt there in a closed and self-sufficient society for over 30,000 years.  In the space of a few decades they were virtually replaced by an immigrant society that was to continue to draw people, ideas and products from overseas.
Hard on the heels of the explorers went the pastoralists, once the initial coastal outposts had been established.  They created a different habitat, a combination of the old and the new.  What they valued and, more importantly, what they could use from the cultural equipment of their previous habitant, they retained.  But the problems of this unfamiliar land caused them quickly to adopt new attitudes and methods.  Agriculture as Englishmen then knew it could not be achieved in the Swan River Colony.”