A Wild History: Life and Death on the Victoria River Frontier by Darrell Lewis

Book Description

Secondhand. Near fine condition.

In 1883, pastoralists began to drive great herds of cattle into the Northern Territory's Victoria River District. It was a cattleman's paradise, but also a paradise for the Aboriginal peoples who had lived there for thousands of years. A twenty-year battle ensued between these two groups, but ultimately both sides lost, as the introduction of cattle began the destruction of the land for both.

The settlers who came to the district included cattle and horse thieves, outlaws, capitalists, dreamers, drunks and madmen. They established massive stations of up to 12,000 square miles on the traditional lands of the Aboriginal peoples. Lewis traces their legacies, from the explorers of the 1830s and 1850s to the founders of the big stations in the 1880s and 1890s, and finally the cattle duffers in the 'golden era' of the early 1900s.

Drawing on painstaking research into obscure though rich documentary sources, Aboriginal oral traditions, and first-hand investigations conducted in the region over thirty-five years, Darrell Lewis pieces together the complex interactions between the environment, the powerful and warlike Aboriginal tribes and the settlers and their cattle, which produced what truly became A Wild History. (back cover)