Wednesdays Closest to the Full Moon: A History of South Gippsland by Barry Collett

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Inscribed by author. Dust jacket has light creasing at edges and spine. Small tear to top front cover. Dust jacket is now enclosed in protective cover.

On Wednesdays, closest to the full moon, the Shire of South Gippsland, Victoria, held their meetings. The councillors could sleep on the way home because the horse would be able to see its way in the moonlight. In such a primitive, but romantic way were things done once upon a time in a green and forested corner of Victoria.

Over the Great Dividing Range from New South Wales came the explorers McMillan and Strezelecki, and then farmer-settlers and diggers. From long ago and until they were displaced by the intruders, the Aboriginal Bratauolong people looked after the spirits and led their lives amid a natural abundance. But not even the powerful spirits that wreathed the mountains of Wilson's Promontory could protect them.

A gold rush followed, exploration, and then settlement. As the gold fever died, the land settled down to farming: at first, beef cattle and sheep, and then dairying. The splendid forest fell to make way for butter and beef: men and their families struggled and then prospered.

Wednesdays Closest to the Full Moon traces the history of the southernmost part of the Australian continent from its indigenous inhabitants to the present day. It is a genial and capacious history with a wealth of detail and anecdote.