This is a pivotal story long overdue for the telling: how Aboriginal and European people interacted with each other following the British territorial invasion of 1826 for the next hundred years.
There has always been a wealth of documentary and oral history available to researchers prepared to write from a local history perspective, yet very few Australian historians have accepted this challenge. What has been lacking until quite recently is the sense among historians and the general Australian public that the history of Aboriginal–European relations, not only for the first few years of contact but for a period of many decades, is central to our nation’s story.
