Limits of Location

In 1826, partly as a means of curbing disorder and brutality in bush living, Governor Darling established the area known as the 'limits of location' within which colonists could see land grants, but beyond which they could not. The line on the map, however, presented no real restraint. The contributors to this book reveal different approaches to creating a colony. Using the rich collections of the Mitchell Library, the authors go beyond the traditional sources of history, highlighting the personal stories revealed through family letters, and creative interaction with the landscape through poetry and drawings. The roles of Aborigines, missionaries, women and migrant workers are explored, and all stories return to the way the newcomers created a sense of place as they settled in this new world. This publication is supported by the NSW Chapter of the Independent Scholars Association of Australia.

Gretchen Poiner is an honorary associate in anthropology at the University of Sydney.

Sybil Jack is an honorary research associate in history at the University of Sydney.

List of illustrations
Foreword
Elizabeth Ellis
Why this collection?
Acknowledgements

Introduction: setting the scene
Gretchen Poiner and Sybil Jack

1. Surveyors and the creation of location in New South Wales
   Sybil Jack
2. Flora in view
   Helen Hewson
3. Belonging: the meaning of place for women in the early settlement of New South Wales
   Gretchen Poiner
4. A very benevolent society
   Marilyn Dodkin
5. Portrait of a family: the lost art of letter writing
   Audrey Tate and Margaret Bettison
6. Early Indian workers in the Australian colonies
   Marie de Lepervanche
7. People and place: terms of inclusion in a colony’s history
   Christine Jennett
8. ‘Make a light’: Aboriginal economic contributions to the emerging nation
   Gaynor Macdonald
9. Baiami and the Bible: religious encounters in early colonial Australia
   Ian Keese
10. ‘An other world’: Albert Tissandier at Jenolan Caves
    Susan Steggall
11. The ethnomania of R.H. Mathews: anthropology and the rage for collecting
    Martin Thomas

Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the contributors
Timeline

Format: paperback
Size: 260 × 210 × 16 mm
272 pages
12 colour illustrations, 2 b&w tables, and 55 b&w illustrations
ISBN: 9781920899158
Publication: 01 Jan 2007