Australian Colonial History

It sometimes seems to me that well written and well researched books covering Australian colonial history (1788-1900) have become an almost extinct genre...

What do you think?

Have you read a good book from this period of Australia's history recently? What was it? Where did you find it?

What's your favourite second hand bookshop to track down or discover obscure volumes on Australian colonial history?

There's a surge of such books happening. Inga Clendinnen's Dancing with Strangers, Philip Jones's Ochre and Rust, anything by Henry Reynolds or Ann Curthoys, Peter Cochrane's Colonial Ambition, James Boyce's Van Diemen's Land, Heather Goodall's Invasion to Embassy (although that comes well into the 20th century). And then there are novels – The Secret River, That Deadman Dance and The Roving Party come to mind. That's just rom looking on my bookshelves. There are probably a lot more

Thanks shawjonathan. I have a copy of 'Ochre and Rust' and really enjoyed it. In regards to new books I keep an eye on what Wakefield Press and Miegunyah Press are publishing. What astonishes me is the variety of Australian Colonial History that appears to have been published from around the mid 1960's to the mid 1980's. Most of my collection has been put together painstakingly from second hand sources and many of the books were published in that era.

If you can get hold of a copy of The Letters of Rachel Henning it gives a fascinating insight of how people lived in the early days of the colonies.

Maybe not as early as you required however I can recommend The White Earth by Andrew McGahan, this novel is historical fiction.

Another waiting for me to read is Great Pioneer Women of The Outback by Susanna De Vries it looks to be fascinating.

Thanks pinkozcat, hazeljune. ''The Letters of Rachel Hemming'' sounds like something I should keep an eye out for. I find letters and diaries of the period very interesting, and the letters 'home' written by the women seem to have more acute social observations.