Discovering Monaro: A Study of Man's Impact on his Environment

by W.K. Hancock

Discovering Monaro, a fascinating local history of an Australian region, is at the same time a contribution to the current debate on the environment and man's manipulation of it. Sir Keith Hancock examines critically the indictment, heralded by Plato in the Critias, that man is a creature who spoils his environment and in so doing spoils himself. He discovers in Monaro, as he did on the terraced hillsides of Tuscany forty years ago, a rhythm of spoiling, restoring and improving. Monaco, a region of nearly 6,000 square miles in Australia's south-eastern corner, is the main provider of water to the earth's driest continent. Sir Keith provides a detailed history of the land use of the area from palaeolithic times to the present day, thus explaining how boo generations of 'black' Australians and six generations of 'white' Australians have supported themselves on its grassy uplands and alpine water-sheds.

Genres: Local History

221 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 1972

About the author

A distinguished historian of Australia, William Keith Hancock was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and later the University of Melbourne where he was resident at Trinity College from 1917. As the Australia-at-large Rhodes Scholar for 1921, Hancock went to Balliol College, Oxford in 1922. He graduated in 1924 with a Bachelor of Arts with first class honours in Modern History. He then became the first Australian to gain a Fellowship of All Souls College, Oxford in 1923. After returning to Australia he was Professor of Modern History at the University of Adelaide between 1924 and 1933.

From 1934 to 1944 Hancock was the Professor of History at University of Birmingham and during this war period was also appointed to the War Cabinet Offices. In 1941 he was appointed Supervisor of the United Kingdom Civil Series of the History of the Second World War and was thereafter editor of the series. Between 1944 and 1949, he returned to Oxford, becoming Chichele Professor of Economic History. In 1949 he left Oxford, taking up an appointment as the Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. He served as the Professor of British Commonwealth Affairs at the University of London until 1956.

Hancock returned to Australia in 1957 to take up an appointment as Director of the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, a position he held until 1961. He was Professor of History at the Institute of Advanced Studies, ANU until his retirement in 1965. On his retirement he was made Emeritus Professor (1968) and created the first University Fellow of the ANU. Other positions he held were Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Australian Dictionary of Biography from 1958 to 1965 and inaugural President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities from 1969 to 1971.

Reviews

[Anne Fenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another book brought to my attention by Tom Griffith in his The Art of Time Travel. It's a detailed study of the area around Canberra and the Snowy Mountains from white settlement on. It's full-on history, very scholarly but lightened by the writer's voice directing us clearly to show what's important to the task. I like his approach, it includes looking beyond the practical to the moral outcomes, although the conclusions in the latter area are very general. The book itself is interesting, published in 1972, it was one of the very first Australian histories to integrate the environment into the account. Written by one of Australia's foremost historians, it must have given the environmental movement a valuable boost. It's a book of its time with almost no reference made to indigenous/white relations, and women's role is ignored.

[Rod · Rating 5 out of 5]

i thoroughly enjoyed discovering Monaro ,and I still pick it up from time to time and re read parts of the book having come from a pioneering family I found this book particularly interesting as it is from my local area I am a sixth generation Australian and very proud of my family History
this book paints very a clear picture of just how our early settlers lived and worked the lands
i purchased this book in 1977 I was in Sydney and just happened on a small book shop in Potts Point Clays bookshop the book was in the front window.
and just looking straight at me it caught my attention so I went in and bought it
i didn't sit down and read it soon it was a few months later and I picked it up and then i was totally taken with it it is a history book with lots of entwining little stories all the way through it
it is also a very good reference book i found it very handy for cross referencing with other books on local History.
i feel that in this day and age we are looking more closely at local history to find out more of our origins a Study on Mans Impact on his Environment is a good read in my opinion