Returning to Nothing: The Meaning of Lost Places

by Peter Read

This book examines what it means to lose a place forever and why we return, and keep on returning, to these places so large in our memories. It considers many lost towns, suburbs and Darwin after Cyclone Tracy, the flooding of the town of Adaminaby in NSW, the inundation of Lake Pedder in Tasmania, bushfire at Macedon in Victoria, migration from other countries, the clearing of neighborhoods for freeways and the everyday circumstances that force people from their land. It establishes how important the places we live in are, and how much we grieve when we lose them.

Hardcover

First published November 4, 1996

About the author

Peter Read is an ARC Professorial Fellow at the Department of History, University of Sydney, and Adjunct Professor, Department of History, ANU. Currently he is researching a history of Aboriginal Sydney, and is slowly building the website A History of Aboriginal Sydney.

Peter Read coined the phrase 'the stolen generation', first used by him as a title for a magazine article. In 1981 he helped create Link-up, an organisation to bring Aborigines who had been abducted back to their parents. It went on to become a major force leading to the Stolen Generation enquiry. On the way Peter wrote many influential publications, including The Lost Children (1988), Charles Perkins: A Biography and Lost Places (1997).

Reviews

[Joy]

Inspiring and thought provoking

[Gretel]

Brilliant contemplative book, exploring our connection and attachment to places and places we've lost or have been forced to say goodbye to.