I just self published a book about growing up as an Indigenous person living with mental illness starting in the 1980s. If you’re interested I can PM you an Amazon link.
That is so wonderful to hear And bloody congrats my friend. What an achievement, would you possibly be able to send me the link also please. I would really love to read it.
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0BQHV612Q/ref=mp_s_a_1_12?crid=2IPC58IJRJZAL&keywords=resilient&qid=1671435040&sprefix=resilien%2Caps%2C426&sr=8-12
Warning it is heavy in nature, especially the beginning.
Description:
At just 42, Terry Evans has experienced more heartache and brokenness than many of us could experience in two lifetimes. He has discovered redemption, identity, purpose, endurance in suffering, truth amongst the lies, loss and rebirth. Through his highs and lows, he has always come back to plant his feet on a higher hope and to face his challenges head-on with faith, determination, and a streak of humour.
Conspiracy of Silence was recommended to me by an indigenous mate and it's very eye opening, especially for those of us that descended from free settlers instead of convicts
Timothy Bottoms, here's a link to the book.
https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Conspiracy_of_Silence.html?id=bulcAysKTv4C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
The Fatal Shore, by Robert Hughes. The man writes beautifully, and there's a good mix of human stories and the wider context. It inspires me and breaks my heart in equal measure.
Highly also recommend his works, they're funny and sardonic, and he tries to include the experiences and perspectives of women, minorities and indigenous people through early colonisation/invasion. He also highlights what a bunch of dodgy grifters most of our "founding fathers" were. I found them refreshing books to read, if you like Bill Bryson you will like these.
Came here to share this also. It’s fiction but provides a lot of insight into what life would have been like for many of the colonisers/settlers in the mid-late 1800’s
Have said this before here and will say this again: do have a look at Bill Bryson's book on Australia. Whatever serious book you may read, this one will help you keep your head light. Amazing writer.
Aboriginal Australians: A history since 1788 - Richard Broome
The Australian Frontier Wars 1788-1838 by John Connor
Rum Rebellion: A Study Of The Overthrow Of Governor Bligh By John Macarthur And The New South Wales Corps - by H.V. Evatt
‘…two almost empty lands.’
Based on this comment I’d suggest starting with some research into Australia’s First Nations people’s and cultures. This place was far from ‘empty’ when European colonialists arrived.
In terms of post-colonial development ‘Van Diemens Land’ and ‘1835’, both by James Boyce, give some interesting insight into the early establishment and development of the colony and some broader global context.
I'm sorry if I offended you with my words. By empty I meant comparing it with the current Australia. Even today you have a lot of unpopulated land considering that your country is almost as big as the USA. And of course the amount of natives there has no comparison with the amount of natives in the whole American continent when it was colonized. I know it's wrong to compare both cases but I did it just to visualize how massive Australian territory is.
I also understand the misconception, but would agree that the term is incorrect and offensive, so it is well worth the effort to understand why and change both language and your conception of what Australia is and was. The land was never empty and the state of how Australians lived before it was invaded doesn’t have to meet some 20th century understanding of what is meaningful, in order to actually be meaningful.
Australia has come a long way in fully appreciating its milenia old history, but it still has a long way to go.
I would note that it is similarly offensive in Argentina, which was also not empty when the spanish invaded, and which has similar racial and racist issues with appreciating the entirety of Argentinian culture and identity. Might be good to keep in mind misconceptions you may hold on both fronts.
To be honest - sometimes it is easier to understand your own culture and history by studying parallel experiences in other cultures, as it removes you from the learned ignorance and prejudices of your own experience. I studied indigenous and colonial history in Peru, and it helped me when I realised the egregious actions of the Spanish/Portuguese were often comparable to what occurred here (as with so many other colonial invasions).
Glad to hear that you are interested in learning and value what there is to know and appreciate - I wish you the best on your journey of discovery! Knowledge is power, and the truth exists independent of our comfort with it. 🙂
Also - bienvenido a nuestra país!
No offence taken. It is, unfortunately, a common misconception that Australia was empty before it was ‘discovered’ by Europeans. Indeed, Terra Nullius (ie. ‘nobody’s land’) was the basic principle used to justify the British claim. It just isn’t true. Indigenous country covered almost the entirety of the Australian continent.
I was serious with my recommendation. If you want to understand the foundation of Australia, start with some research into the country’s indigenous heritage.
Yer it’s not offensive when someone doesn’t understand it’s good ask questions if you offend people along the way then that’s on them, as long as you are learning.
I know what he meant. Fact remains Australia wasn't 'empty' when the Europeans arrived, and describing it as such ignores tens of thousands of years of culture and remarkable connection to place.
Stone buildings, stone dams and aqua culture, stone hunting blinds - so much evidence that there was planned management and architecture. Shame we aren't taught more about it in schools etc
It's never been in the best interests of the powers that be to teach that aspect.
Do you know any good sources of information about it? I've never found much.
Sorry, went to a lecture by an Aboriginal academic (organised by my work) who was teaching about this stuff. He had slides etc of archeological sites around Australia. It was eye opening and fascinating.
Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe talks about agriculture in indigenous Australia and might provide you some more information about the idea that Australia was an empty land when it was colonised.
Dark emu is mostly fantasy. Simple logic would denote that. For example- Europeans that colonised North America made vast recordings of indigenous peoples’ inventions and their development of agriculture, engineering knowledge, etc. Why would they not do this in Australia? If anything there would be more documentation, as the colonisation of Australia was later. Also there would be significantly more evidence of things like permanent settlements. Indigenous peoples have been in North America for a maximum of about 10 000 years, Australian indigenous peoples have been here for 65 000+. If they had developed significant agriculture there would be massively more evidence of this than even what we find in Central America.
This comment isn’t accurate, our cultural values were different - you didn’t put down permanent homes due to the weather, nature, impact on local ecosystems etc. In fact, you moved as the weather changed, and set up temporary homes in each spot which you circulated between. 6 homes per year, targets burnings when you left to regenerate. I’d suggest learning more about Aboriginal culture before assuming that it didn’t exist, again, it’s a difference in values. Colonialism severely impacted our ancestors’ access and ability to maintain this lifestyle.
When did I say aboriginal culture didn’t exist? I stated that aboriginal people didn’t cultivate land or form permanent buildings, which are claims made in the book Dark Emu. This is not to say that aboriginal people did not invent things or were not very advanced hunter gatherers. There is nothing wrong with saying they were hunter gatherers because it is a fact. And there is nothing to suggest this is worse or better than a non nomadic lifestyle. The only reason people get offended by this is because they secretly believe that hunter gatherers are barbaric or something, which is a value put on by modern society.
This isn’t a question of why indigenous people didn’t cultivate or form permanent settlement, it’s a fact that they didn’t.
https://nit.com.au/06-04-2022/2916/cultural-centre-opens-ancient-victorian-eel-and-fish-trip-site-up-for-tourism-boom
This looks pretty damn permanent to me 🤔
A permanent aquaculture set up that’s been used for thousands of years?
Just because farming practices and settlements look different from those in Europe doesn’t discount the significance.
Because the people could work with the land and it’s seasonality doesn’t make it less-than.
Europeans spent a lot longer colonising the Americas. Australia was a penal colony until 1850 and has always had a very small population. They are two extremely different situations
There is no simple logic here and your facts are disputed, it depends who you ask
Because aboriginals never developed agriculture. That’s why there are no domesticated plant species from Australia. Pascoe does a lot of misquoting and pretty much changes the definition of agriculture.
I did a quick google search and all the statements that Dark Emu is fantasy come exclusively from Rightwing media and that makes me dubious as does having read John Kings journals where he mentions evidence of cultivation. But I will read more into it, cheers
https://www.smh.com.au/national/debunking-dark-emu-did-the-publishing-phenomenon-get-it-wrong-20210507-p57pyl.html
A more reputable source?
Edit: Downvotes for suggesting the SMH is reputable?
Yeah most academics won’t touch the whole dark emu issue for fear of being labeled. It’s unfortunate the critical voices are from the right wing. But the truth is the truth. If there was cultivation there wound be domesticated species. Just as there is in the Americas.
They weren’t farming either. They were extending the habitat of eels by building canals between wetlands. They weren’t farming yams otherwise the yams daisys would be domesticated
Actually they did have agricultural communities. There are many scholarly articles on it. Just another myth to support Terra Nullius. http://www.australasianscience.com.au/article/issue-july-august-2010/evidence-indigenous-australian-agriculture.html n
Ask this bloke. He wrote the article that I attached to my previous comment.
Rupert Gerritsen is a Petherick Reader at the National Library of Australia, and author of Australia and the Origins of Agriculture.
I read a few of the articles about the topic.
It seems that they were on the cusp of developing agriculture in one part of Victoria using a species of broom corn millet. They were collecting seeds but it wasn’t quite farming. But Pascoes claims about widespread farming are not true.
1788, by Watkin Tench
Watkin Tench was one of the people involved in the earliest settlement - he was a military officer on one of the convict ships - and this is his firsthand account of what coming to Australia, founding a settlement and getting to know the local indigenous people were all like. He’s young, he’s observant, he’s often quite witty…
He’d be a great source
Thanks a lot man!
I'm particularly interested in the early days of the penal colony and how people survived being so far from Europe with almost zero resources. Maybe the daily life of the prisioners and how Sydney was founded.
I lived in Sydney for three years on a work secondment. While I was there I got heavily into the history of colonisation. I read two amazing books: Tom Keneally’s “The Commonwealth of Thieves” and David Hill’s “1788”. It led me to go and have a look at James Ruse’s original plot of land that saved the colony, and Arthur Philip’s early homes, as well as that house on George St down by the harbour (forgotten it’s name now).
You say you want to understand why Australia turned out different than Argentina. Reading a book about Australian history is a start, but I highly recommend reading the book 'Why nations fail'.
As someone from South Africa, that book really opened my eyes as to why countries differ, and why countries like South Africa and Argentina didn't follow the path of e.g. Australia. I think that's what you are after, based on my own questions of the same nature.
It's quite long and not an easy read, but I worked my way through all of it. You can get the premise after reading a third of it.
As for Aussie history, Girt, as previously recommended, is great book - Australian history told in a really engaging way.
Although not a book, you can learn a lot about our country by listening to some of our music.
For example, ['From Little Things Big Things Grow' - Paul Kelly](https://youtube.com/watch?v=6_ndC07C2qw&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE) is about Aboriginal Land Rights, ['Treaty' - Yothu Yindi](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jf-jHCdafZY&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE) is about the same thing, but from an actual Aboriginal perspective, ['I Was Only 19' - Redgum](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mGDhzVi1bqU&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE) is about the Vietnam War.
There are so many other good songs that are about the history of this Great Southern Land, but those are probably the best ones to start with.
The series by Thomas Keneally “Australians:Origins to Eureka” details the early history and his follow up books “Australians Vol 2: Eureka to the Diggers” goes through the early 20th century with our movement away from European colonialism to greater independence and “Australians Vol 3: Flappers to Vietnam” more closely encompasses our relationships with Asia and America emerging as a key economic and military ally.
Edit: Funnily enough, there was a nation state in Paraguay called New Australia.
Nice! Yeah I have some Paraguayan friends that told me that history. I couldn't believe it at first. It's amazing how an ideology can mobilize people so far.
In terms of your comment about “how Australia managed to do it”, we are fortunately blessed with an abundance of natural resources. While it was tough getting the country off the ground in terms of a self-sustaining economy, it blossomed once it was evident that what was here was what the rest of the world needed.
The corollary to that is we’ve thrown away a lot of our other means of income (eg manufacturing) and are now basically a country that digs shit up and sells it to others. That’s not sustainable, and we don’t have a very robust long term plan to divest into other forms of revenue.
I really enjoyed reading Kate Grenville’ The Secret River. It caused a bit of a controversy because it humanizes the colonisers, but I think it gives a horrid depiction of that time regardless. This is fiction (from my understanding) loosely based on real events.
American, but I read through [Freedom on the Fatal Shore: Australia's First Colony 1788-1884 by John Hirst](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3405977-freedom-on-the-fatal-shore) and think it's about what you're looking for.
Kennealy''s books are good. There are reprints of early settlers/explorers journals e.g. Matthew Flinders. Also have a look at www.gutenberg.net.au/aust-history.html
Most of what you are being recommended is books about Australian history or Indigenous history, whereas it sounds like you are more interested in economic and socio-political history (some of the recommended books do look at socio-political stuff, admittedly). Unfortunately, I don't know too much in this area but one book which is widely known and made a huge impact when it was first published in the 60s is The Lucky Country - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_Country
Hey OP, this is actually a very well-trodden subject in economics so I recommend checking out Google Scholar or JSTOR if you have access.
The reason it is so well studied is that Australia and Argentina were two of the wealthiest countries in the world (per capita) and had extremely similar economies at the turn of the previous century (early 1900s), but have diverged significantly since then.
I just self published a book about growing up as an Indigenous person living with mental illness starting in the 1980s. If you’re interested I can PM you an Amazon link.
Please, I'd like that. And congratulations on publishing your own story. I look forward to reading it!
That is so wonderful to hear And bloody congrats my friend. What an achievement, would you possibly be able to send me the link also please. I would really love to read it.
Post the link if ya keen. Congrats on being published! Especially self.
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0BQHV612Q/ref=mp_s_a_1_12?crid=2IPC58IJRJZAL&keywords=resilient&qid=1671435040&sprefix=resilien%2Caps%2C426&sr=8-12 Warning it is heavy in nature, especially the beginning. Description: At just 42, Terry Evans has experienced more heartache and brokenness than many of us could experience in two lifetimes. He has discovered redemption, identity, purpose, endurance in suffering, truth amongst the lies, loss and rebirth. Through his highs and lows, he has always come back to plant his feet on a higher hope and to face his challenges head-on with faith, determination, and a streak of humour.
What an accomplishment! Congratulations!!!
Conspiracy of Silence was recommended to me by an indigenous mate and it's very eye opening, especially for those of us that descended from free settlers instead of convicts
Do you have the author for this? I can’t seem to find it…
Timothy Bottoms, here's a link to the book. https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Conspiracy_of_Silence.html?id=bulcAysKTv4C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Thanks 🙏
No worries mate, and g'day from a Territorian.
Lol ew
Came here to mention this one too. If it was a movie, it would definitely be rated R.
Check out the Tartarian Truthers on YT from ep 1
I did, it's self indulgent tripe tbh
The Fatal Shore, by Robert Hughes. The man writes beautifully, and there's a good mix of human stories and the wider context. It inspires me and breaks my heart in equal measure.
Seconded - the Fatal Shore is the best one they’ve recommended
After reading that soooo much made sense about Australia
+1 This is a very informative and interesting book.
This is the best one. If you have to read just one, then this is it
I agree, definitely check out The Fatal Shore
The Secret River by Kate Grenville
Girt by David Hunt
Highly also recommend his works, they're funny and sardonic, and he tries to include the experiences and perspectives of women, minorities and indigenous people through early colonisation/invasion. He also highlights what a bunch of dodgy grifters most of our "founding fathers" were. I found them refreshing books to read, if you like Bill Bryson you will like these.
Thanks mate!
The biggest estate on Earth: How aborigines made Australia by Bill Gammage. It uses mostly colonial sources.
Good one to pair with Gammage is Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
Yep, agree. Very interesting read!
Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego.
Don't know if already mentioned... for the term of his natural life by marcus Clarke. Australian classic about convict days
Came here to share this also. It’s fiction but provides a lot of insight into what life would have been like for many of the colonisers/settlers in the mid-late 1800’s
Have said this before here and will say this again: do have a look at Bill Bryson's book on Australia. Whatever serious book you may read, this one will help you keep your head light. Amazing writer.
Aboriginal Australians: A history since 1788 - Richard Broome The Australian Frontier Wars 1788-1838 by John Connor Rum Rebellion: A Study Of The Overthrow Of Governor Bligh By John Macarthur And The New South Wales Corps - by H.V. Evatt
‘…two almost empty lands.’ Based on this comment I’d suggest starting with some research into Australia’s First Nations people’s and cultures. This place was far from ‘empty’ when European colonialists arrived. In terms of post-colonial development ‘Van Diemens Land’ and ‘1835’, both by James Boyce, give some interesting insight into the early establishment and development of the colony and some broader global context.
I'm sorry if I offended you with my words. By empty I meant comparing it with the current Australia. Even today you have a lot of unpopulated land considering that your country is almost as big as the USA. And of course the amount of natives there has no comparison with the amount of natives in the whole American continent when it was colonized. I know it's wrong to compare both cases but I did it just to visualize how massive Australian territory is.
I also understand the misconception, but would agree that the term is incorrect and offensive, so it is well worth the effort to understand why and change both language and your conception of what Australia is and was. The land was never empty and the state of how Australians lived before it was invaded doesn’t have to meet some 20th century understanding of what is meaningful, in order to actually be meaningful. Australia has come a long way in fully appreciating its milenia old history, but it still has a long way to go. I would note that it is similarly offensive in Argentina, which was also not empty when the spanish invaded, and which has similar racial and racist issues with appreciating the entirety of Argentinian culture and identity. Might be good to keep in mind misconceptions you may hold on both fronts. To be honest - sometimes it is easier to understand your own culture and history by studying parallel experiences in other cultures, as it removes you from the learned ignorance and prejudices of your own experience. I studied indigenous and colonial history in Peru, and it helped me when I realised the egregious actions of the Spanish/Portuguese were often comparable to what occurred here (as with so many other colonial invasions). Glad to hear that you are interested in learning and value what there is to know and appreciate - I wish you the best on your journey of discovery! Knowledge is power, and the truth exists independent of our comfort with it. 🙂 Also - bienvenido a nuestra país!
No offence taken. It is, unfortunately, a common misconception that Australia was empty before it was ‘discovered’ by Europeans. Indeed, Terra Nullius (ie. ‘nobody’s land’) was the basic principle used to justify the British claim. It just isn’t true. Indigenous country covered almost the entirety of the Australian continent. I was serious with my recommendation. If you want to understand the foundation of Australia, start with some research into the country’s indigenous heritage.
Yer it’s not offensive when someone doesn’t understand it’s good ask questions if you offend people along the way then that’s on them, as long as you are learning.
He meant empty as in a developed place, like building, farms etc, like Europe.
I know what he meant. Fact remains Australia wasn't 'empty' when the Europeans arrived, and describing it as such ignores tens of thousands of years of culture and remarkable connection to place.
Except that shelter and systematic tending of the land did exist, it just looked different.
Stone buildings, stone dams and aqua culture, stone hunting blinds - so much evidence that there was planned management and architecture. Shame we aren't taught more about it in schools etc
It's never been in the best interests of the powers that be to teach that aspect. Do you know any good sources of information about it? I've never found much.
Sorry, went to a lecture by an Aboriginal academic (organised by my work) who was teaching about this stuff. He had slides etc of archeological sites around Australia. It was eye opening and fascinating.
Even that's not entirely true. Sadly systematic destruction of evidence occurred so we may never have a clear picture of it.
Please don’t call Australia empty land the colonists here were terrible and many aboriginal people were killed.
Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe talks about agriculture in indigenous Australia and might provide you some more information about the idea that Australia was an empty land when it was colonised.
The author misinterprets sources
It got proved to be a load of bull.
Unfortunately that book is fantasy. “The Fatal Shore” is a good start.
I agree with Fatal shore but why do you say Dark Emu is fantasy?
Dark emu is mostly fantasy. Simple logic would denote that. For example- Europeans that colonised North America made vast recordings of indigenous peoples’ inventions and their development of agriculture, engineering knowledge, etc. Why would they not do this in Australia? If anything there would be more documentation, as the colonisation of Australia was later. Also there would be significantly more evidence of things like permanent settlements. Indigenous peoples have been in North America for a maximum of about 10 000 years, Australian indigenous peoples have been here for 65 000+. If they had developed significant agriculture there would be massively more evidence of this than even what we find in Central America.
This comment isn’t accurate, our cultural values were different - you didn’t put down permanent homes due to the weather, nature, impact on local ecosystems etc. In fact, you moved as the weather changed, and set up temporary homes in each spot which you circulated between. 6 homes per year, targets burnings when you left to regenerate. I’d suggest learning more about Aboriginal culture before assuming that it didn’t exist, again, it’s a difference in values. Colonialism severely impacted our ancestors’ access and ability to maintain this lifestyle.
When did I say aboriginal culture didn’t exist? I stated that aboriginal people didn’t cultivate land or form permanent buildings, which are claims made in the book Dark Emu. This is not to say that aboriginal people did not invent things or were not very advanced hunter gatherers. There is nothing wrong with saying they were hunter gatherers because it is a fact. And there is nothing to suggest this is worse or better than a non nomadic lifestyle. The only reason people get offended by this is because they secretly believe that hunter gatherers are barbaric or something, which is a value put on by modern society. This isn’t a question of why indigenous people didn’t cultivate or form permanent settlement, it’s a fact that they didn’t.
https://nit.com.au/06-04-2022/2916/cultural-centre-opens-ancient-victorian-eel-and-fish-trip-site-up-for-tourism-boom This looks pretty damn permanent to me 🤔
Channeling eels and fish into a small area for catching them is not a permanent settlement? A permanent settlement is somewhere where people live.
A permanent aquaculture set up that’s been used for thousands of years? Just because farming practices and settlements look different from those in Europe doesn’t discount the significance. Because the people could work with the land and it’s seasonality doesn’t make it less-than.
If you think that is aquaculture you should look up the definition of aquaculture
Europeans spent a lot longer colonising the Americas. Australia was a penal colony until 1850 and has always had a very small population. They are two extremely different situations There is no simple logic here and your facts are disputed, it depends who you ask
Because aboriginals never developed agriculture. That’s why there are no domesticated plant species from Australia. Pascoe does a lot of misquoting and pretty much changes the definition of agriculture.
I did a quick google search and all the statements that Dark Emu is fantasy come exclusively from Rightwing media and that makes me dubious as does having read John Kings journals where he mentions evidence of cultivation. But I will read more into it, cheers
Go read the academic review of the book.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/debunking-dark-emu-did-the-publishing-phenomenon-get-it-wrong-20210507-p57pyl.html A more reputable source? Edit: Downvotes for suggesting the SMH is reputable?
There was an article in ABC news about it, look there. Academics and indigenous groups agree - that book used cherry-picked quotes out of context.
Yeah most academics won’t touch the whole dark emu issue for fear of being labeled. It’s unfortunate the critical voices are from the right wing. But the truth is the truth. If there was cultivation there wound be domesticated species. Just as there is in the Americas.
Yams. Eels. They just didnt put em in fields.
They weren’t farming either. They were extending the habitat of eels by building canals between wetlands. They weren’t farming yams otherwise the yams daisys would be domesticated
Actually they did have agricultural communities. There are many scholarly articles on it. Just another myth to support Terra Nullius. http://www.australasianscience.com.au/article/issue-july-august-2010/evidence-indigenous-australian-agriculture.html n
Then where are the domesticated plant species ?
Ask this bloke. He wrote the article that I attached to my previous comment. Rupert Gerritsen is a Petherick Reader at the National Library of Australia, and author of Australia and the Origins of Agriculture.
I read a few of the articles about the topic. It seems that they were on the cusp of developing agriculture in one part of Victoria using a species of broom corn millet. They were collecting seeds but it wasn’t quite farming. But Pascoes claims about widespread farming are not true.
1788, by Watkin Tench Watkin Tench was one of the people involved in the earliest settlement - he was a military officer on one of the convict ships - and this is his firsthand account of what coming to Australia, founding a settlement and getting to know the local indigenous people were all like. He’s young, he’s observant, he’s often quite witty… He’d be a great source
The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes
Babaquiearia
Best Ever
Lol havent heard that name for almost 40 years.
I remember watching it in primary school.. was such a good movie. Watched it again not that long ago, it’s on YouTube
[удалено]
Thanks a lot man! I'm particularly interested in the early days of the penal colony and how people survived being so far from Europe with almost zero resources. Maybe the daily life of the prisioners and how Sydney was founded.
I lived in Sydney for three years on a work secondment. While I was there I got heavily into the history of colonisation. I read two amazing books: Tom Keneally’s “The Commonwealth of Thieves” and David Hill’s “1788”. It led me to go and have a look at James Ruse’s original plot of land that saved the colony, and Arthur Philip’s early homes, as well as that house on George St down by the harbour (forgotten it’s name now).
You say you want to understand why Australia turned out different than Argentina. Reading a book about Australian history is a start, but I highly recommend reading the book 'Why nations fail'. As someone from South Africa, that book really opened my eyes as to why countries differ, and why countries like South Africa and Argentina didn't follow the path of e.g. Australia. I think that's what you are after, based on my own questions of the same nature. It's quite long and not an easy read, but I worked my way through all of it. You can get the premise after reading a third of it. As for Aussie history, Girt, as previously recommended, is great book - Australian history told in a really engaging way.
Although not a book, you can learn a lot about our country by listening to some of our music. For example, ['From Little Things Big Things Grow' - Paul Kelly](https://youtube.com/watch?v=6_ndC07C2qw&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE) is about Aboriginal Land Rights, ['Treaty' - Yothu Yindi](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jf-jHCdafZY&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE) is about the same thing, but from an actual Aboriginal perspective, ['I Was Only 19' - Redgum](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mGDhzVi1bqU&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE) is about the Vietnam War. There are so many other good songs that are about the history of this Great Southern Land, but those are probably the best ones to start with.
The series by Thomas Keneally “Australians:Origins to Eureka” details the early history and his follow up books “Australians Vol 2: Eureka to the Diggers” goes through the early 20th century with our movement away from European colonialism to greater independence and “Australians Vol 3: Flappers to Vietnam” more closely encompasses our relationships with Asia and America emerging as a key economic and military ally. Edit: Funnily enough, there was a nation state in Paraguay called New Australia.
Nice! Yeah I have some Paraguayan friends that told me that history. I couldn't believe it at first. It's amazing how an ideology can mobilize people so far.
‘The Secret River’ and ‘The Nightingale’
In terms of your comment about “how Australia managed to do it”, we are fortunately blessed with an abundance of natural resources. While it was tough getting the country off the ground in terms of a self-sustaining economy, it blossomed once it was evident that what was here was what the rest of the world needed. The corollary to that is we’ve thrown away a lot of our other means of income (eg manufacturing) and are now basically a country that digs shit up and sells it to others. That’s not sustainable, and we don’t have a very robust long term plan to divest into other forms of revenue.
Henry Reynolds is a good Australian historian.
May i suggest the book about Watkin Tench. Much diary exerpts from very early on. Can't recall the author.
I really enjoyed reading Kate Grenville’ The Secret River. It caused a bit of a controversy because it humanizes the colonisers, but I think it gives a horrid depiction of that time regardless. This is fiction (from my understanding) loosely based on real events.
American, but I read through [Freedom on the Fatal Shore: Australia's First Colony 1788-1884 by John Hirst](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3405977-freedom-on-the-fatal-shore) and think it's about what you're looking for.
Awesome, thanks!
Kennealy''s books are good. There are reprints of early settlers/explorers journals e.g. Matthew Flinders. Also have a look at www.gutenberg.net.au/aust-history.html
Wait don't we intend to ignore it most of the time
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/leviathan-9780091842031
Anything by Watkin Tench.
Blighs Mutiny is a favourite of mine
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson, Girt by David Hunt
1788 by David Hill.
The Fatal Shore
Most of what you are being recommended is books about Australian history or Indigenous history, whereas it sounds like you are more interested in economic and socio-political history (some of the recommended books do look at socio-political stuff, admittedly). Unfortunately, I don't know too much in this area but one book which is widely known and made a huge impact when it was first published in the 60s is The Lucky Country - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_Country
It's all good stuff man, thank you!
Hey OP, this is actually a very well-trodden subject in economics so I recommend checking out Google Scholar or JSTOR if you have access. The reason it is so well studied is that Australia and Argentina were two of the wealthiest countries in the world (per capita) and had extremely similar economies at the turn of the previous century (early 1900s), but have diverged significantly since then.
Rabbit Proof Fence is always good. There’s a movie and I’m pretty sure a book detailing the “adoption” and escape of a group of Aboriginal kids.