Triumph of the Nomads: A History of Aboriginal Australia

by Geoffrey Blainey

In this fascinating re-assessment of the ancient aborigines, Australia's foremost historian makes the case that these nomadic peoples were not hapless primitives trapped in a hostile environment, but the triumphant masters of their continent. A continent which they discovered in truly heroic expeditions.

Genres: History, Australia, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Indigenous

285 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Geoffrey Blainey, one of Australia's most eminent historians, was appointed the foundation Chancellor of the University of Ballarat (UB) in 1993 after an illustrious career at the University of Melbourne. He was installed as UB Chancellor in December 1994 and continued until 1998. The Blainey Auditorium at the Mt Helen Campus of UB is named in his honour. Blainey, always a keen exponent of libraries and the acquisition of books, has donated part of his extensive book collection to the UB library. In 2002 the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters was conferred on Blainey in recognition of his contribution to the University of Ballarat and to the community in general.

Educated at Ballarat High School, Blainey won a scholarship to Wesley College, before attending Melbourne University where he studied history. He worked as a freelance historical author writing mainly business histories such as The Peaks of Lyall; Gold and Paper; a History of the National Bank of Australasia; and Mines in the Spinifex. Blainey accepted a position at the University of Melbourne in 1962 in the Faculty of Economics and Commerce. He held the positions of Professor of Economic History (1968-77); Senior Lecturer 1962; and from 1977-1988 he occupied the Ernest Scott Chair of History at Melbourne University. Professor Blainey also held the chair of Australian studies at Harvard University.

As an economic historian, Blainey challenged the conventional view, questioning accepted contemporary understandings of European settlement of Australia as a convict nation, Aboriginal land rights, and Asian immigration. He is described as a 'courageous public intellectual, a writer with rare grace and a master storyteller'. In a reassessment of the life of Blainey, 'The Fuss that Never Ended' considers his ideas, his role in Australian history, politics and public life, and the controversies that surrounded him.

He was always popular with students. According to the Melbourne University home page 'When Geoffrey Blainey spoke to final-year students in the Friends of the Baillieu Library HSC Lectures in the 1970s, the Public Lecture Theatre was packed to capacity and his audience carried copies of his books to be signed, a tribute to what Geoffrey Bolton characterised as his "skills in interpreting technological change in admirably lucid narratives that appealed to both specialist and non-specialist audiences".

Among his most popular works are the 'The Rush that Never Ended: A History of Australian Mining'; 'The Tyranny of Distance'; 'A Shorter History of Australia'; 'A Short History of the World'; and 'The Origins of Australian Football'.

In 2000 Professor Blainey was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia for service to academia, research and scholarship, and as a leader of public debate at the forefront of fundamental social and economic issues confronting the wider community. At that time the University's Vice-Chancellor Professor Kerry Cox said 'Geoffrey Blainey guided the new and inexperienced university through its first four years with a benevolent but firm hand. This time was challenging as the university strove to make a place for itself in higher education, grappled with funding cuts and the eventual merger with neighbouring TAFE institutes. For those at the university fortunate enough to work with Geoffrey Blainey during his time as Chancellor, they witnessed first hand his humility, and we are proud of his role in our history.'

In 2002 the degree of Doctor of Letters was conferred on Professor Blainey in recognition of his contribution to the University of Ballarat and the community in general. The same year Blainey donated a collection of material to the University of Ballarat. Included in this collection are historical books, papers and other material relating to the early history of mining and the central Victorian goldfields. A second generous donation of material was received in 2005. 'The Geoffrey Blainey Mining Collection' is l

Reviews

[Bob Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

They went about as far as they could go

Almost any other book on Australia's Aborigines that you can find will be an anthropological description of Aboriginal life as seen in its declining years or modern Aboriginal problems in the 20th century. Some may record the awful history of injustice, the fatal impact of alcohol and white police---maybe even the deliberate policy of breaking up cultures and families that existed until recent times. There are a lot of books out there and I certainly am not familiar with all of them. Geoffrey Blainey wrote this highly original book back in 1975. I first read it a couple of years later and have kept it in mind all these years as a book that looked at the whole picture of Aborigines and their life in Australia in an entirely different way. I am basing this review on the original edition. He begins by pointing out that Australia was the only continent to be discovered by sea---and not by Europeans, but by pre-neolithic, island-hopping peoples of the distant past. When in later ages, much of the low-lying area north of present-day Australia was flooded by rising seas, the continent was isolated for millennia. Blainey tells how the Aborigines "terraformed" Australia by fire, how they learned to exploit every plant, insect, animal, and water source, how they coped with the volcanic eruptions of five to eight thousand years ago, how they developed the technology they needed, using all the materials available. Without any domesticable animals except dogs, which had come with them, and without any metals, they managed to maintain a stable lifestyle for thousands of years. Neither were they totally ignorant of the outside world, as northern Aborigines had contacts with Indonesian sailors, traders, and slave-catchers long before Captain Cook "discovered" Australia. Some of the Indonesian materials bartered found their way far inland.
Though infant mortality and incidence of violent death in war and quarrels was higher than in Europe, in the year 1800 it was probably true that the average Aborigine had as good a standard of living as the average European---or better. They may not have had houses, but they felt no need for them in most parts of the country. They were nomads who didn't have sheep or cattle, but who wandered their beloved country in conjunction with natural seasons of plenty. Their diet was better than that enjoyed by many European peasants or factory workers, they had more leisure time, working fewer hours to get what they needed to live (and did not rely on child labor) and a richer cultural life in which all participated. The way in which the Aborigines conquered their environment and managed to wrest from it such a standard of living is indeed nothing less than a triumph. If you tend to think of Aborigines in terms of losers in the battle for survival, read this book. If all you know about Aboriginal triumph is Cathy Freeman winning that gold medal at the Sydney Olympics, read this well-written, interesting volume to know she came from a tremendously long line of tough, successful people.

[Sammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic. Still highly informative reading on the great variety, strengths, and intricacies of Indigenous Australian culture before white people came. In the 2020s, we live in an era of a) reactionary right-wing types, who still reiterate the pallid, naive ideas, which Blainey disproved almost five decades ago, in which the existence of Australia's many Indigenous nations were static, often desperate, and lacking in complexity, and b) ideological left-wing types who - not unreasonably or unsympathetically - seek out narratives of power and woe in their fight against lingering discrimination and the rose-tinted view of the past which successive governments seem desperate to write into the history books, but who aren't so interested in using science or reason to hammer things out. Instead, by using those very tools, Blainey examines the many ways in which nomadic life was equal - or superior - to that of Europeans and Asians, as well as exploring the versatility, developments, and depth of life on the continent prior to 1788. It is a nuanced portrayal that, of course, lacks something for being old now, but - adjusted for inflation, as it were - is richly rewarding. There were several times that I was able to reposition my mind, on items I had been pondering for some time. (For example, as Blainey discusses in the final chapter, the possibility that one of the reasons why farming and domestication didn't make it across from some of the islands of New Guinea and the Torres Strait - almost within sight of Australia and within trading networks for northern Indigenous people - was to do with their inconsistency with nomadic life. Soil in the areas which regularly traded - those in the north - was not welcoming to farming; the most popular domesticated animal (the pig) would be an encumbrance on even a partly-nomadic life; it did not reflect in the cultural and religious values which also tied northern Australians to their central and southern brethren; and in fact Indigenous people often made a better life being nomadic: it was - in good times - fewer hours' work than domesticated life and was strengthened by the movement throughout the seasons which of course isn't possible on a smaller island. Additionally, the islands of New Guinea provided fewer but more abundant foodstuffs in smaller locations, supporting the additional growth of, say, taro. Domestication made sense when it arrived. By contrast, even with some pigs or some sweet potatoes, Indigenous tribes would still have needed to traverse a wider area of land for the incredibly wide but less populous range of items that made up their diet, and thus it would have been an active liability. The more you know.)

Pivotal reading for anyone interested in Australian history.

[Ava Franklin]

Riveting
Super straightforward and to the point

[Ira Kelkar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for class obviously but this book could have been like 30 pages but it was 250. It was interesting enough but seriously so drawn out

[Chris Lira · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by a bookstore employee in Perth. I couldn't understand how it could possibly be considered that the Aborigines triumphed in Australia since they are very marginalized in their society, with high rates of unemployment and alcoholism, etc.(sound familiar?). But the premise of the book is that the Aborigines were in Australia for *at least* 35,00 years before the Europeans arrived, and some estimates say it may be as much as 60,000 years. In that regard, they did triumph over a very inhospitable land, both geographically and climatically. They didn't just survive, they thrived. The book is a very interesting study of their lifestyle- how they gathered and hunted for food, the nomadic lifestyle, customs and taboos, etc.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book quite good but with a significant blindspot: there is no mention at all of the word, or concept, Dreamtime (or Dreaming). While Blainey frames this as an economic history of pre-contact Australia, leaving out such a significant cultural aspect cannot but limit it. Imagine an economic history of Europe without talking about Catholicism, or America without Protestantism. That said, it is still worth a read and is - typically for Blainey - iconoclastic.

[N H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Publishing something of this magnitude in 1975 is impressive.

[Joan Garvan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written account of indigenous peoples travelling across the straits to inhabit the great southern continent. I must read this one again.

[Kevin]

The first Blainey book I have read, can't comment too much I have not read too many books on the subject.

[Els Willems · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book if you want to know more about the history of Australia. Blainey writes about the succes of the Aboriginals to survive. http://stukgelezen.nl/stukgelezen.nl/...

[Petra X · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy-going, somewhat interesting. Can't read more than a few pages at a time. I expect it will take most of 2010 to finish it.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can check out the review here

http://nursepastorfatherhusband.blogs...

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Triumph of the nomads : a history of ancient Australia by Geoffrey Blainey (1976)