Book Review

Winner of the 2001 New South Wales Premier's History Prize and winner of the 2001 Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Non-Fiction, The Colonial Earth is a beautifully crafted book. Printed on a satin 115gsm paper with wide margins and well-chosen illustrations including excellent reproductions of colonial artworks to introduce chapter themes, it looks and feels a book of substance. 1       However, it is in the text that this work really shines, as a work of detailed scholarship. The author states 'my premise ... was that it was largely through the detail of what Australians depicted, said and did that one could see how they occupied the land, both imaginatively and physically' (p. 2). Such detailed work is also generally necessary to refute commonly accepted historical wisdom, wisdom which couches views of the past in simple certainties, often moulded to suit current philosophy or orthodoxy rather than acknowledging that the past has been as complex and diverse as the present. 2      Thus each chapter carefully elucidates a different case study in Australian relationships with the environment, chronicling the thorny and uncertain path of environmental concern and its translation into protection. Each is meticulously sourced with endnotes, standing alone as a major reference on the chosen topic, and there is an extensive select bibliography. Yet it is also immensely readable as a series of separate stories. 3      Through these case studies, Bonyhady's central thesis questions the standard view which portrays the settlement of Australia as a tale of unremitting environmental disaster and wanton destruction caused by settlers with no interest in, or affinity for, their new environment. The dominant theme linking the disparate studies traces the varied wellsprings of environmental appreciation and concern in late eighteenth and nineteenth century Australia, along with its frequent failures to achieve real protection. Starting with an exploration of the role of artists, photographers and writers in both presenting and defining these concerns, Bonyhady ranges widely beyond these professions for evidence. Yet he does not ignore the darker side of artistic environmental attitudes as he explores the apparent ambivalence inherent in artists reflection of less environmentally oriented values of their days. 4      For today's environmentalist, these case studies also painfully demonstrate that battles for environmental conservation and protection began with early settlement. Pragmatic self-interest and or lack of willingness of governments to act have a long history in thwarting attempts to implement and/or enforce environmental protection. 5      The specific studies include: the fate of the Mount Pitt Bird of Norfolk Island; Governor Bligh's pursuit of government responsibility to regulate activities on private land in the public interest, and its contribution to his downfall; attitudes to eucalypts, landscape, and land clearing; failures in conservation in the Dandenongs 1854-1890s; aspects of nineteenth century environmental activism; artists' and photographers' use of the axe and the gun in their celebration of nature; droughts, floods and resource conservation in western NSW 1880-1890s; the saga of attempts to mine coal from to Sydney's Cremorne Point; and landscape degradation and restoration of the Tower Hill volcanic crater in Victoria between the 1850s and the 1990s. 6      Bonyhady defines his study as colonial by its pre-1900 focus, but the book could almost be titled 'The Victorian Earth'. Eight of the chapters are set firmly in the Victorian period. With regard to locale, half the chapters explore issues based in the state of Victoria, although some of these chapters include substantial examples from New South Wales and Tasmania. The latter states are the focus for the other six studies, while the remaining Australian colonies receive very little mention. Bonyhady's thesis is certainly demonstrated by his chosen range of studies and the same trends may be apparent with close study of the other colonies, but it is not the broadest interpretation of the Australian colonial environment. 7      However, the major disappointment is that the threads and themes are not drawn together, either in the conclusions of the individual chapters or at the end of the book. There is an excellent introduction, which can almost be reread as a conclusion. With stories so detailed and distinct, readers may feel a need to return to the big canvas at the end of the book; they may be disappointed at its abrupt end with the final segment of the saga of Tower Hill. 8      The book is well illustrated, but it is not lavish, given the major theme of the role of artists in contributing to environmental attitudes and appreciation. There are 75 illustrations in total, with only eight in colour, so that the use of the artworks to help tell the stories has perhaps not been explored to its full potential. 9      Tim Bonyhady has contributed a series of notable works to the small but growing body of literature on the environmental history of European settlement in Australia. This excellent volume is no exception, integrating a range of fields, including art history, environmental history and history of environmentalism, in a new and intensely interesting way. 10   Macquarie University LYNNE MCLOUGHLIN

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