Australia - History; Squatters - Australia; Gold Mining - Australia; Land Selection - Australia

I thoroughly enjoyed this rather dated account of daily life from settlement to federation. Presumably it was written as a school text book. The writing style is very easy to digest, without being dumbed down. Many excellent quotes from contemporary sources, describing the incredibly primitive conditions of early squatters, shearers, swagmen, gold diggers, city dwellers and so forth.

For me, this book filled many gaps of understanding I had regarding the reasons people emigrated to Australia, what they did when they got here, how large the colonies were, and what people were doing when they weren't exploring new routes overland or governing. ( )