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Looking from the North: Australian history from the top down
Henry Reynolds’ ground-breaking re-examination of Australian colonisation from the north down.
When acclaimed historian Henry Reynolds moved from Hobart to Townsville to teach Australian history in the 1960s, he discovered the books of the period covered very little about northern Australia and First Nations peoples. He set out to help remedy the situation and ended up transforming Australian history in ways he could never have imagined.
In Looking from the North, Reynolds again turns Australian history on its axis with an exploration of colonisation north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Reynolds tells the stories of the European, Chinese, Japanese and Pacific Islander people who were vital to the settlement of the north. Along with the experience of First Nations peoples, from employment on stations and as native police to the land rights and homelands movements, Reynolds shows how the colonisation of the north, officially beginning in 1861, was a very different venture to settlement in the south. He argues that it provides profoundly important lessons for the world we live in today.
‘This book is another masterpiece by Henry Reynolds. It combines the personal with the professional historiography that trademarks his work. The skilful and meticulous detail of his writing will once again inform Australians that truth can heal this nation.’ – Jackie Huggins
‘Henry Reynolds was at the vanguard of young historians who burst onto the scene in the 1970s to shake the foundations of Australian history. Looking from the North explores “national history from the north down”, yet again challenging Australia’s past. Meticulously researched and written, this latest work by Reynolds deserves its place alongside his other groundbreaking histories.’ – John Maynard
‘Henry Reynolds’ map-flipping, mind-bending, gravity-defying book turns our colonial and national history on its stubborn head. By geolocating the axis of Australia’s imperial enterprise in the continent’s north, Reynolds challenges conventional assumptions of centre and margin; the value-laden hierarchy of proximate and remote. In doing so, the master storyteller changes the status of the people, power and perspectives that have shaped the nation’s political trajectory. A radical revision of the past and a timely cartographic and conceptual blueprint for repositioning future relationships to law, sovereignty and country.’ – Clare Wright
When acclaimed historian Henry Reynolds moved from Hobart to Townsville to teach Australian history in the 1960s, he discovered the books of the period covered very little about northern Australia and First Nations peoples. He set out to help remedy the situation and ended up transforming Australian history in ways he could never have imagined.
In Looking from the North, Reynolds again turns Australian history on its axis with an exploration of colonisation north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Reynolds tells the stories of the European, Chinese, Japanese and Pacific Islander people who were vital to the settlement of the north. Along with the experience of First Nations peoples, from employment on stations and as native police to the land rights and homelands movements, Reynolds shows how the colonisation of the north, officially beginning in 1861, was a very different venture to settlement in the south. He argues that it provides profoundly important lessons for the world we live in today.
‘This book is another masterpiece by Henry Reynolds. It combines the personal with the professional historiography that trademarks his work. The skilful and meticulous detail of his writing will once again inform Australians that truth can heal this nation.’ – Jackie Huggins
‘Henry Reynolds was at the vanguard of young historians who burst onto the scene in the 1970s to shake the foundations of Australian history. Looking from the North explores “national history from the north down”, yet again challenging Australia’s past. Meticulously researched and written, this latest work by Reynolds deserves its place alongside his other groundbreaking histories.’ – John Maynard
‘Henry Reynolds’ map-flipping, mind-bending, gravity-defying book turns our colonial and national history on its stubborn head. By geolocating the axis of Australia’s imperial enterprise in the continent’s north, Reynolds challenges conventional assumptions of centre and margin; the value-laden hierarchy of proximate and remote. In doing so, the master storyteller changes the status of the people, power and perspectives that have shaped the nation’s political trajectory. A radical revision of the past and a timely cartographic and conceptual blueprint for repositioning future relationships to law, sovereignty and country.’ – Clare Wright
235 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 1, 2025
About the author
Henry Reynolds
60 books55 followersHenry Reynolds is currently an ARC Senior Research Fellow at the University of Tasmania at Launceston. He was for many years at James Cook University in Townsville. He is the author of many well-known books including The Other Side of the Frontier, Law of the Land, Fate of a Free People and Why Weren’t We Told?
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 4, 2026
Looking from the North examines Australian history north of the Tropic of Capricorn. It is distinct from the southern states. Queensland was granted independence in 1859, and an independent South Australia annexed the Northern Territory in 1863 (Western Australia remained a Crown colony until 1890). The European population residing in the North was negligible at the time. Its subsequent colonisation over the next half-century was therefore an Australian enterprise. The events that ensued—both good and bad—are therefore our own. Reynolds, however, spotlights the horrific.
Squatter-led frontier violence had been somewhat tempered by officials in London, who desired more humane relations with First Nations people. However, under Queensland’s newly independent and squatter-dominated legislature, the violence worsened with the creation of the Native Mounted Police. Their task was to enforce colonisation by crushing Indigenous resistance. When they were decommissioned in 1915, 40,000 Indigenous people were dead. Queensland had full male suffrage at the time. This slaughter, Reynolds concludes, was democratically sanctioned.
The destruction of First Nations people in the North continued well after Australia federated in 1901. However, by this time, politicians from the southern states were increasingly concerned by two other interrelated forces. First, the North remained sparsely populated, which feasibly undermined claims of Australia’s sovereignty over the continent. Second, there was often a plurality of Asian migrants in the region. The latter directly led to the White Australia Policy, and the former underscores arguments that Indigenous sovereignty may not have been extinguished.
Without the Asian diaspora, some northern settlements may have failed. Southern politicians, however, were blinded by racial ideology. Edmund Barton, Australia’s first prime minister, summed up the prevailing sentiment, stating: “The doctrine of equality of every man was never intended to apply to the equality of the Englishman and the Chinaman…. [W]e see no prospect and no promise of it ever being effaced. Nothing in the world can put these two races upon an equality.” It is little wonder that the White Australia Policy was among the first laws legislated by the Commonwealth.
A more pernicious motive underpinned efforts to exclude non-white migration from the North. Reynolds shows that politicians regarded northern Australia as vital to the future of the white race, believing it to be the last place where it could expand freely in the service of higher civilisation. The continent, they argued, had to be preserved for settlement exclusively by white races. This, according to Reynolds, amounted to a pursuit of Lebensraum: the belief that the great white race required space to secure its continued supremacy, with northern Australia designated as that space.
After this assertion, Reynolds curiously offers no further elaboration. This omission may suggest that, upon closer scrutiny, the claim is unsustainable. Lebensraum, a German term meaning “living space,” was rooted in a racial ideology that asserted German superiority over other peoples. Under this belief, those deemed inferior were considered expendable for territorial expansion. The pursuit of Lebensraum led to the mass murder and displacement of millions and culminated in Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, an act that initiated the Second World War.
Like Nazi Germany, White Australia viewed itself as racially superior and as requiring greater land mass to sustain this belief. Like Slavs, Asian people, despite evidence to the contrary, were deemed inferior. However, this is where the analogy between Lebensraum and the White Australia Policy begins to break down. Australia’s Asian diaspora were expelled from the country, whereas Slavs were systematically exterminated by Nazi Germany. The ideologies underpinning each system may have been similar, but the outcomes were vastly different.
The killing of First Nations people in White Australia’s pursuit of total land possession may align more closely with the logic of Lebensraum. Reynolds, however, does not apply the analogy in this context. Even if he did, it would likely have done more to distract than to illuminate. The atrocities committed as Europeans advanced across the continent are harrowing enough without resorting to historically flawed shortcuts. A more consequential issue raised by the drive for land is whether Indigenous sovereignty was ever lawfully extinguished.
Reynolds asks whether Australia satisfied the requirements of international law for sovereignty, which at the time demanded effective control and the capacity to protect life and property, at least in principle, even if imperial practice often tolerated thin or symbolic control. He notes that at the time of Federation white Australia had effectively occupied only a quarter of the continent. This arguably remained the case until after the Second World War. Meanwhile, Indigenous societies continued to mostly exist independently of both the Australian state and the British Crown.
The conventional legal view is that British sovereignty over Australia was acquired through three stages of annexation: 1788, 1824, and 1829. However, because Britain proclaimed terra nullius, Reynolds argues that there was no clear act extinguishing Indigenous sovereignty. He contends that the Crown bears the burden of proving when and how this occurred. Consequently, Indigenous sovereignty in the legal sense may still exist if it were tested in court, particularly in northern communities that have historically governed their own affairs and continue to do so.
Reynolds notes that the act of state doctrine bars judicial review of territorial claims. This was applied in Mabo, with one of the justices declaring that the acquisition of foreign territory was “an act of state which cannot be challenged, controlled or interfered with by the courts of that state.” Reynolds asserts that this “presents us with the extraordinary proposition that Australia’s highest court is unable to challenge a decision in the late 18th century on the other side of the world during the reign of George III.”
By treating the coexistence of First Nations and settler sovereignties as conceptually unresolved, Reynolds overlooks why such claims are never tested. Courts avoid adjudicating competing sovereignties because recognising rival authority would undermine judicial legitimacy and state governance. They prioritise legal continuity over historical correction. Native title reflects this logic as a legal compromise: it recognises Indigenous occupation and traditional rights while leaving Australia’s sovereignty intact, which is maintained uninterrupted constitutional authority.
The issue of sovereignty is Reynolds’ final substantive argument, yet much is left unexplored. Queensland receives significant attention; the NT far less, with only one substantive chapter focused on Darwin; and WA is largely overlooked. As someone from WA now living in the NT, and given the subtitle Australian History from the Top Down, this imbalance is striking. Moreover, there is little engagement with events of the twentieth century, and virtually none of the twenty-first. The book is only 200 pages, so there was room for this material.
Understanding the history of race relations is crucial to the North’s story, but it is not its only defining theme. Other notable themes, such as the region’s resilience, are ignored. Darwin, for example, was razed by bombs in 1942 and again devastated by Cyclone Tracy in 1974, yet it has emerged as a thriving city. Including more positive aspects of the North’s history would have provided a fuller picture, rather than framing the region almost exclusively through violence and dispossession. Positive events did not require equal representation, but they did not warrant being glanced over.
Curiously, Reynolds only briefly mentions the increasing militarisation of the North. Townsville and Darwin effectively function as garrison cities for Australian and American troops. Over the past two decades, this militarisation has become the defining development of the region, reflecting intensifying great-power competition with China. Whereas Canberra might have abandoned the North during a Second World War invasion, today it forms Australia’s first line of defence and would be a likely target in any future conflict.
Reynolds gestures toward this reality through a quote from Singaporean intellectual Kishore Mahbubani, who stated in 2022 that Australia could choose to “be a bridge between the East and the West in the Asian Century—or the tip of the spear projecting Western power in Asia.” I have argued elsewhere that Australia has effectively chosen the latter through deeper military ties with America. Reynolds, however, does not explore why this path has been, and continues to be, taken. After all, American troops have been in Darwin for more than eighty years.
Despite its omissions, Looking from the North is highly informative. Reynolds’ prose is clear and accessible, making the book engaging for the general reader. As a veteran of the “history wars,” he has spent decades uncovering Australia’s forgotten history of colonisation and the violent dispossession of First Nations’ land. Even in his eighties, Reynolds continues to speak with principle and courage in confronting uncomfortable truths. For anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Australia’s past, Reynolds remains essential reading, and a national treasure.
Subscribe for free to receive new book reviews and political analyses directly: https://callumscolumn.substack.com/
Squatter-led frontier violence had been somewhat tempered by officials in London, who desired more humane relations with First Nations people. However, under Queensland’s newly independent and squatter-dominated legislature, the violence worsened with the creation of the Native Mounted Police. Their task was to enforce colonisation by crushing Indigenous resistance. When they were decommissioned in 1915, 40,000 Indigenous people were dead. Queensland had full male suffrage at the time. This slaughter, Reynolds concludes, was democratically sanctioned.
The destruction of First Nations people in the North continued well after Australia federated in 1901. However, by this time, politicians from the southern states were increasingly concerned by two other interrelated forces. First, the North remained sparsely populated, which feasibly undermined claims of Australia’s sovereignty over the continent. Second, there was often a plurality of Asian migrants in the region. The latter directly led to the White Australia Policy, and the former underscores arguments that Indigenous sovereignty may not have been extinguished.
Without the Asian diaspora, some northern settlements may have failed. Southern politicians, however, were blinded by racial ideology. Edmund Barton, Australia’s first prime minister, summed up the prevailing sentiment, stating: “The doctrine of equality of every man was never intended to apply to the equality of the Englishman and the Chinaman…. [W]e see no prospect and no promise of it ever being effaced. Nothing in the world can put these two races upon an equality.” It is little wonder that the White Australia Policy was among the first laws legislated by the Commonwealth.
A more pernicious motive underpinned efforts to exclude non-white migration from the North. Reynolds shows that politicians regarded northern Australia as vital to the future of the white race, believing it to be the last place where it could expand freely in the service of higher civilisation. The continent, they argued, had to be preserved for settlement exclusively by white races. This, according to Reynolds, amounted to a pursuit of Lebensraum: the belief that the great white race required space to secure its continued supremacy, with northern Australia designated as that space.
After this assertion, Reynolds curiously offers no further elaboration. This omission may suggest that, upon closer scrutiny, the claim is unsustainable. Lebensraum, a German term meaning “living space,” was rooted in a racial ideology that asserted German superiority over other peoples. Under this belief, those deemed inferior were considered expendable for territorial expansion. The pursuit of Lebensraum led to the mass murder and displacement of millions and culminated in Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, an act that initiated the Second World War.
Like Nazi Germany, White Australia viewed itself as racially superior and as requiring greater land mass to sustain this belief. Like Slavs, Asian people, despite evidence to the contrary, were deemed inferior. However, this is where the analogy between Lebensraum and the White Australia Policy begins to break down. Australia’s Asian diaspora were expelled from the country, whereas Slavs were systematically exterminated by Nazi Germany. The ideologies underpinning each system may have been similar, but the outcomes were vastly different.
The killing of First Nations people in White Australia’s pursuit of total land possession may align more closely with the logic of Lebensraum. Reynolds, however, does not apply the analogy in this context. Even if he did, it would likely have done more to distract than to illuminate. The atrocities committed as Europeans advanced across the continent are harrowing enough without resorting to historically flawed shortcuts. A more consequential issue raised by the drive for land is whether Indigenous sovereignty was ever lawfully extinguished.
Reynolds asks whether Australia satisfied the requirements of international law for sovereignty, which at the time demanded effective control and the capacity to protect life and property, at least in principle, even if imperial practice often tolerated thin or symbolic control. He notes that at the time of Federation white Australia had effectively occupied only a quarter of the continent. This arguably remained the case until after the Second World War. Meanwhile, Indigenous societies continued to mostly exist independently of both the Australian state and the British Crown.
The conventional legal view is that British sovereignty over Australia was acquired through three stages of annexation: 1788, 1824, and 1829. However, because Britain proclaimed terra nullius, Reynolds argues that there was no clear act extinguishing Indigenous sovereignty. He contends that the Crown bears the burden of proving when and how this occurred. Consequently, Indigenous sovereignty in the legal sense may still exist if it were tested in court, particularly in northern communities that have historically governed their own affairs and continue to do so.
Reynolds notes that the act of state doctrine bars judicial review of territorial claims. This was applied in Mabo, with one of the justices declaring that the acquisition of foreign territory was “an act of state which cannot be challenged, controlled or interfered with by the courts of that state.” Reynolds asserts that this “presents us with the extraordinary proposition that Australia’s highest court is unable to challenge a decision in the late 18th century on the other side of the world during the reign of George III.”
By treating the coexistence of First Nations and settler sovereignties as conceptually unresolved, Reynolds overlooks why such claims are never tested. Courts avoid adjudicating competing sovereignties because recognising rival authority would undermine judicial legitimacy and state governance. They prioritise legal continuity over historical correction. Native title reflects this logic as a legal compromise: it recognises Indigenous occupation and traditional rights while leaving Australia’s sovereignty intact, which is maintained uninterrupted constitutional authority.
The issue of sovereignty is Reynolds’ final substantive argument, yet much is left unexplored. Queensland receives significant attention; the NT far less, with only one substantive chapter focused on Darwin; and WA is largely overlooked. As someone from WA now living in the NT, and given the subtitle Australian History from the Top Down, this imbalance is striking. Moreover, there is little engagement with events of the twentieth century, and virtually none of the twenty-first. The book is only 200 pages, so there was room for this material.
Understanding the history of race relations is crucial to the North’s story, but it is not its only defining theme. Other notable themes, such as the region’s resilience, are ignored. Darwin, for example, was razed by bombs in 1942 and again devastated by Cyclone Tracy in 1974, yet it has emerged as a thriving city. Including more positive aspects of the North’s history would have provided a fuller picture, rather than framing the region almost exclusively through violence and dispossession. Positive events did not require equal representation, but they did not warrant being glanced over.
Curiously, Reynolds only briefly mentions the increasing militarisation of the North. Townsville and Darwin effectively function as garrison cities for Australian and American troops. Over the past two decades, this militarisation has become the defining development of the region, reflecting intensifying great-power competition with China. Whereas Canberra might have abandoned the North during a Second World War invasion, today it forms Australia’s first line of defence and would be a likely target in any future conflict.
Reynolds gestures toward this reality through a quote from Singaporean intellectual Kishore Mahbubani, who stated in 2022 that Australia could choose to “be a bridge between the East and the West in the Asian Century—or the tip of the spear projecting Western power in Asia.” I have argued elsewhere that Australia has effectively chosen the latter through deeper military ties with America. Reynolds, however, does not explore why this path has been, and continues to be, taken. After all, American troops have been in Darwin for more than eighty years.
Despite its omissions, Looking from the North is highly informative. Reynolds’ prose is clear and accessible, making the book engaging for the general reader. As a veteran of the “history wars,” he has spent decades uncovering Australia’s forgotten history of colonisation and the violent dispossession of First Nations’ land. Even in his eighties, Reynolds continues to speak with principle and courage in confronting uncomfortable truths. For anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Australia’s past, Reynolds remains essential reading, and a national treasure.
Subscribe for free to receive new book reviews and political analyses directly: https://callumscolumn.substack.com/
March 21, 2026
Interesting and necessary ideas included, but lacks detail and really should be a 400 page book or more.
April 8, 2026
Excellent read. Challenged my understanding of our history of settlement. Very much enjoyed the well researched alternate stories of Asian settlement across the north. Appalled by the well argued point that the slaughters of our indigenous people were avoidable, that the Native Police could have been repurposed, and that alternative policy settings were available and being implemented in other colonies
March 19, 2026
loved this, required reading imo. make the conclusion a book
November 18, 2025
A fascinating and pacy read. This book explores the history of northern Australia.
April 3, 2026
Like all Henry Reynold's books this is readable and fascinating. I learn things I didn't know. As someone who has always lived in the south and visited the north fleetingly, I was particularly fascinated to read about the contributions of the Chinese, the Japanese and the Pacific Islanders to the development of key industries in northern Australia, of which I only had vague knowledge. How different our history could have been. I wonder what part we played in the militarisation and fascism in Japan following our racist treatment of the Japanese in Thursday Island and Broom.
The round up of the road to Aboriginal land rights was also good to be reminded of. I was astounded that it was as late as 1986 that Australian law was divorced from British Law. The significance of that passed me by at the time.
This is a book I would encourage Australians to read.
The round up of the road to Aboriginal land rights was also good to be reminded of. I was astounded that it was as late as 1986 that Australian law was divorced from British Law. The significance of that passed me by at the time.
This is a book I would encourage Australians to read.
March 26, 2026
Purchased this for 35 bucks in Alice Springs (the furthest North I’ve ever been) because I love geography maps and Australia 💪 inspired from meeting Jacki from Darwin and another girl from Cairns I myself never have been to Queensland so naturally I wanted to know
I’ve always felt this split I remember learning about Australian geography in year 1 and the itchiness of looking outside and remembering Burwood Westfield and swimming lessons and a storm blowing a neighbours washing into our playground this was not the thorny devil and monsoon Australia I was looking at an abstract and very confused as to why this country wasn’t cohesive
Henry Reynolds explains all this fantastically and writes so languidly I can tell he was excited to share all of it and has internalised this knowledge over decades it flowed so well and is the perspective anyone from Sydney Melbourne etc needs to hear because why is our North so foreign to us
This book needs to be thrown at Auspill and added to the curriculum because as a country we have so much to learn I appreciated the almost wry tone - also I think his writing gave so much autonomy to the Indigenous peoples in how he didn’t slap that victim label everywhere without extrapolating because First Nations have had an incredible economic impact and social curiosity that I feel is neglected through a simple read of coloniser and colonised 🔎🔎
I think the book could’ve benefited from maybe even more depth since scholarship is so lacking and I have so many cultural questions. Where did Iggy Azaelia get her blaccent from? When will direct routes from Cooktown to Guangzhou come back? Why does our constitution lowkey suck and why is LAWS2150 so ignorant of this? How does Eliza Fraser have a plaque on Orkney Island way back in north Scotland when it was her husband who died on K’gari she wasnt even from there and was a gossipy racist old bint! I am left with my old battered Yes 2023 sticker on my crummy headphones and remember there is so much we don’t know how to fix however I remain with a tentative optimism that we will arrive somewhere better and am ever excited to see how our country matures #australianautonomy #asiapacificidentity #culturalpride #indigenousknowledgesystems🇦🇺🦘🐨🌴🪨
I’ve always felt this split I remember learning about Australian geography in year 1 and the itchiness of looking outside and remembering Burwood Westfield and swimming lessons and a storm blowing a neighbours washing into our playground this was not the thorny devil and monsoon Australia I was looking at an abstract and very confused as to why this country wasn’t cohesive
Henry Reynolds explains all this fantastically and writes so languidly I can tell he was excited to share all of it and has internalised this knowledge over decades it flowed so well and is the perspective anyone from Sydney Melbourne etc needs to hear because why is our North so foreign to us
This book needs to be thrown at Auspill and added to the curriculum because as a country we have so much to learn I appreciated the almost wry tone - also I think his writing gave so much autonomy to the Indigenous peoples in how he didn’t slap that victim label everywhere without extrapolating because First Nations have had an incredible economic impact and social curiosity that I feel is neglected through a simple read of coloniser and colonised 🔎🔎
I think the book could’ve benefited from maybe even more depth since scholarship is so lacking and I have so many cultural questions. Where did Iggy Azaelia get her blaccent from? When will direct routes from Cooktown to Guangzhou come back? Why does our constitution lowkey suck and why is LAWS2150 so ignorant of this? How does Eliza Fraser have a plaque on Orkney Island way back in north Scotland when it was her husband who died on K’gari she wasnt even from there and was a gossipy racist old bint! I am left with my old battered Yes 2023 sticker on my crummy headphones and remember there is so much we don’t know how to fix however I remain with a tentative optimism that we will arrive somewhere better and am ever excited to see how our country matures #australianautonomy #asiapacificidentity #culturalpride #indigenousknowledgesystems🇦🇺🦘🐨🌴🪨
February 16, 2026
Flipping the script:
HLooking from the North: Australian history from the top downHenry Reynoldsave you ever seen a map of the world that is not the standard Mercator-type, but which depicts the continents and their positions in a way that is more true to life? If so, you’ll know that slightly unsettling feeling of gazing at a depiction of our planet that just looks weird, or so different to what you are used to, as it challenges deep assumptions about world geography.
Reading Looking from the North felt a bit like that for me. Having been born, raised and educated (and lived the majority of my life) in the southeast of Australia, my ‘take’ on our national story was, I see now, very much from a ‘looking from the south’ perspective. This book shook that up in a mildly unsettling, but also refreshing, way.
https://denisenewtonwrites.com/?p=7826
HLooking from the North: Australian history from the top downHenry Reynoldsave you ever seen a map of the world that is not the standard Mercator-type, but which depicts the continents and their positions in a way that is more true to life? If so, you’ll know that slightly unsettling feeling of gazing at a depiction of our planet that just looks weird, or so different to what you are used to, as it challenges deep assumptions about world geography.
Reading Looking from the North felt a bit like that for me. Having been born, raised and educated (and lived the majority of my life) in the southeast of Australia, my ‘take’ on our national story was, I see now, very much from a ‘looking from the south’ perspective. This book shook that up in a mildly unsettling, but also refreshing, way.
https://denisenewtonwrites.com/?p=7826
April 27, 2026
I heard the author speaking on Radio National, and the opinions he expressed were so different from what I understood about Australian history that I felt I had to get his book to understand more. As I read through the book I realised that in fact I hadn't really been taught much at all about the history of northern Australia, and that the points were very valid. Now that I've finished I have a very different understanding of how / if Australia was conquered by the English, and how that relates to native title.
Also it makes me sad that we have missed so many opportunities in this country by believing that Australia needed to be white.
Also it makes me sad that we have missed so many opportunities in this country by believing that Australia needed to be white.
December 25, 2025
This is essential reading for all interested in understanding important issues about Australia’s future in a world of growing influence of Asia
We are a very vast land, the history of northern Australia since European invasion, the scar the White Australia policy inflicted & the very important role of indigenous Australians should be reflected on by all of us. All seeking to lead us should definitely read this book.
We are a very vast land, the history of northern Australia since European invasion, the scar the White Australia policy inflicted & the very important role of indigenous Australians should be reflected on by all of us. All seeking to lead us should definitely read this book.
January 14, 2026
Looks at the Australian tropics and its history. An easy read explaining the way the northern Australia was colonised and the way it has evolved. The background on places like Broome and Thursday Island were very interesting. It traces the political changes and the way it has affected the tropics, which remain expansive and relatively underpopulated.
January 30, 2026
This book was recommended to me but I found it very depressing. From the way the British treated Australia's Aborigines, to the way the new nation of Australia treated them, the White Australia policy and the way they are still being treated, just made me despair that anything will ever change for them.
December 20, 2025
This book should be read by every Australian so that all have a comprehensive understanding of our true history
February 19, 2026
Essential reading for Australians. I thought I knew a lot about Australian history but I learned so much more from this book. There is a lot to think about and change for Australia’s future.
March 19, 2026
Some interesting points, but somewhat dull. Noticed lots of grammatical errors which was weird.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews