Australia's First Frontier: The Spread of Settlement in New South Wales 1788-1829 by T M Perry

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book corners and edges. Light foxing to top foredge. Previous owner has signed inside page, now covered with blank ex libris bookplate sticker. Dust jacket has some small holes on the front cover and scuffing on the back cover. Tear to spine top. Dust jacket is now enclosed in a glossy protective cover. Body text and binding are still very good.

This study seeks to describe the advance of Australia's frontier of settlement in New South Wales. It is an historical geography of the occupation of the areas near Sydney and the movement of settlers thence to the alluvial river flats and forest lands of the Cumberland Plain and, during the second decade of the 19th century, outwards towards the frontier areas beyond the Blue Mountains and Hunter River Valley.

Settlement spread primarily not because of a land shortage but because of floods, droughts, plagues and the deterioration of pastures in the settled areas. The shortage of land and the increasing numbers of flocks and herds became important only after 1823 in extending settlement.

The nature of the 'frontier' in each of the newly settled areas differed because of governmental control, which in turn affected the social structure of the population in each of the 3 principal frontier districts - Westmoreland, Argyle and the Hunter Valley - and so the pattern of development in these districts. Each of these three elements is considered in detail in the well-documented, illustrated book, first published in 1963.