'Generations of Australians have been taught that no wars have ever been fought on Australian soil. Yet as many as 20,000 black Australians died fighting a war of resistance that lasted for more than a century.'
Six Australian Battlefields presents an alternative view of history. Through detailed accounts of four great clashes, it confronts the reader with the realities of life on the Australian frontier. And through a retelling of the stories of Vinegar Hill and Eureka it reminds the reader of the central place of resistance in our past.' (Source: Publisher's website)
'In the mid-1950's my requests of a number of bookshops for publications on matters Aboriginal yielded but one: A.O. Neville's Australia's Coloured Minority (1947), the analysis and prescriptions of a retired Western Australian Commissioner of Native Affairs. This was the era of 'The Great Australian Silence' of W.E.H. Stanner's 1968 Boyer Lectures. That silence has since been broken; and these two books make a welcome further contribution. They also serve as reminders that the tasks of getting the story together, sorting out the terms of reference, and relating the past to the present, are still in their early days.' (Introduction)
'In the mid-1950's my requests of a number of bookshops for publications on matters Aboriginal yielded but one: A.O. Neville's Australia's Coloured Minority (1947), the analysis and prescriptions of a retired Western Australian Commissioner of Native Affairs. This was the era of 'The Great Australian Silence' of W.E.H. Stanner's 1968 Boyer Lectures. That silence has since been broken; and these two books make a welcome further contribution. They also serve as reminders that the tasks of getting the story together, sorting out the terms of reference, and relating the past to the present, are still in their early days.' (Introduction)
