http://shawjonathan.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/ross-gibsons-seven-versions/

This book is a meditation on the so-called horror stretch, country north of Rockhampton in central Queensland that has a reputation as the setting for terrible events. Starting with a number of roadside murders in the second half of last century that made headlines all over Australia, Gibson explores the cultural factors, the 'structure of feeling', underlying the general fascination with those crimes. A 'badland' such as this, he says, is a way of localising and mythologising issues that are unresolved in the society in general. This description may lead you to expect something that reads like a bad translation from the French, with lots of impenetrable theory. But it's an engaging read, and becomes compelling as it moves back in time to the terrible first contact between Aboriginal people and settlers, forward again to the ordeals of Melanesian indentured workers in the sugar paddocks, and forward yet again to the White Australia Policy's denial of the extraordinary diversity of the region.

'Sooner or later,' Gibson writes, 'any society that would like to know itself as "post-colonial" must confront an inevitable question: how to live with collective memories of theft and murder. Sooner or later, therefore, acknowledgement and grieving must commence before healing can ensue.' ( )