The Fatal Shore

"The Fatal Shore. The epic of Australia's founding", by Robert Hughes, published 1987 by Harvill Press, is a historical account of the United Kingdom's settlement of Australia as a penal colony with convicts. The book details the period 1770 onwards through white settlement to the 1840s, when Australia was established as a European outpost. The book explains many of the origins of the Australian character and being, such as the Australian support for Bushrangers, the underdog and the dislike between the English and Irish and their religions. It won the WH Smith Literary Award in 1988.

The book focuses on the historical, political and sociological reasons that led to white settlement. The book has five key directions:

* The difficulty of transportation in the 1780s and of hardship endured in establishing the colony.
* The nature of the convict population, and their relationship with the colonial authorities, and with free settlers.
* The interaction between the colonists and Aborigines.
* Other penal colonies including Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land, and the torturous life of the convicts there.
* The establishment of social institutions that would shape Australian society and culture.

Though scholarly in the depth of its research, The "Fatal Shore" has been prized for the fine quality of its writing, particularly in evoking the harshness of life experienced both by convicts and would-be escapees. The following passage describes the final hours of an escapee from Macquarie Harbour, one of two men left from an original group of eight, who turned to cannibalism for survival:

“When Pearce stopped, so did Greenhill. When one squatted, so did the other. There was no question of sleep. 'I watched Greenhill for two nights, and I thought he eyed me more than usual.' One imagines them: a small fire of eucalyptus branches in the immense cave of the southern night, beneath the drift and icy prickle of unfamiliar stars; the secret bush noises beyond the outer ring of firelight - rustle of grass, flutter and croaking of nocturnal birds -- all sharpened and magnified by fear...”

Greenhill was eventually killed by Pearce, who was finally recaptured.

Notable quotes from The "Fatal Shore".

*Britain “had hoped that ... transportation would do four things: sublimate, deter, reform and colonise.”

*The book's title refers to Van Diemen's Land, and comes from a contemporary ballad.

(ISBN 0-394-75366-6)