Media: hardcover 232 pages, with original justacket
Author: C. & M. Kerr
Year: 1976
ISBN: 0727001566
Publisher: International Limited Editions

Condition: excellent (has owners name inside)

The Australian pioneers came to what seemed a dry and empty wilderness and were almost obliged to dream that the impossible could be brought about. Sometimes it was, either by sheer determination or just plain good fortune. More often it was not. But in the process they forged a new country
with its own identity and outlook.

This book looks at four groups of these pioneers—the river men, the overlanders, the gold-seekers and the empire-builders. By the example they set of overcoming the hardships, the sudden hazards, the almost-unendurable and the heartbreaks, they typify all the stuff of character that is now part and pared of the Australian instinct.

The river men who plied their paddle-steamers through an unpredictable river system, the overlanders who drove stock far beyond the known boundaries, the gold-seekers who gave up their all for a throw of the dice against Chance, the men of high mark who left their names engraved on the history page . . . together they make up an incalculable part of the country's heritage. Margaret and Colin Kerr recreate their parts in a growing nation, and do so in a style which captures their living essences.

CONTENTS

THE RIVER MEN
1 The First River Men
2 The First Steamers
3 Pioneers of Trading
4 The Important Years
5 Ventures and Adventures

THE OVERLANDERS
1 Sydney to Port Phillip
2 The Route to Adelaide
3 Eyre —Fame and Failure
4 Overlanding
5 Men of Parts
6 Stocking Queensland
7 Northwards —with Delays
8 Through the Centre
9 Kimberley Heroes
List of Important Events

THE GOLD-SEEKERS
1 The Road to the Diggings 121
2 Discoveries and Rushes I 125
3 Discoveries and Rushes II 136
4 Diggers in a Landscape 150
5 The Easy Way 158
6 Victory from a Lost Battle 162
7 Into Nationhood 170

TWELVE MAKERS OF AUSTRALIA
1 The Natural Philosopher: Joseph Banks (1743-1820)
2 The First “Battler”: Arthur Phillip (1738-1814)
3 Pugnacious Pastoralist: John Macarthur (1767-1834)
4 The Gentle Hero: Charles Sturt (1795-1869)
5 Whig and Dissenter: George Fife Angas (1789-1879)
6 The Vice-Regent: William Thomas Denison (1804-71)
7 The Orator as Statesman: Henry Parkes (1815-96)
8 Newspaper Government: David Syme (1827-1908)
9 “Emperor of the West”: John Forrest (1847-1918)
10 The Queensland Judge: Samuel Walker Griffith (1845-1920)
11 The Lone Hand: J. F. Archibald (1856-1919)
12 Citizen Soldier: John Monash (1865-1931)