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The biggest estate on earth : how Aborigines made Australia / Bill Gammage.

By:

Gammage, Bill, 1942-

Material type: Text

TextCrows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2011Description: xxiii, 434 pages : color illustrations, maps ; 26 cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9781742377483 (hbk.)
9781743311325 (pbk.)

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

305.89915 22

Contents:

Australia in 1788 -- Why was Aboriginal land management possible? -- How was land managed? -- Invasion.

Summary: "Across Australia, early Europeans commented again and again that the land looked like a park. With extensive grassy patches and pathways, open woodlands and abundant wildlife, it evoked a country estate in England. Bill Gammage has discovered this was because Aboriginal people managed the land in a far more systematic and scientific fashion than we have ever realised. For over a decade he has examined written and visual records of the Australian landscape. He has uncovered an extraordinarily complex system of land management using fire, the life cycles of native plants, and the natural flow of water to ensure plentiful wildlife and plant foods throughout the year. We know Aboriginal people spent far less time and effort than Europeans in securing food and shelter ... . With details of land-management strategies from around Australia, The biggest estate on earth rewrites the history of this continent, with huge implications for us today."--Dust cover.

Holdings ( 3 )
Title notes ( 5 )

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Copy number	Status	Barcode
Book	Lost item	RBG	305.89915 EDU.BIG (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Lost Not For Loan	RBGM00006098
Book	State Botanical Collection	RBG	305.89915 BIG (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available	RBG00025697
Book	Lost item	ARCUE Collection	305.89915 ARC.BIG (Browse shelf(Opens below))	2	Lost Not For Loan	RBGM00006180

Includes bibliographical references (p. 379-415) and index.

Australia in 1788 -- Why was Aboriginal land management possible? -- How was land managed? -- Invasion.

"Across Australia, early Europeans commented again and again that the land looked like a park. With extensive grassy patches and pathways, open woodlands and abundant wildlife, it evoked a country estate in England. Bill Gammage has discovered this was because Aboriginal people managed the land in a far more systematic and scientific fashion than we have ever realised. For over a decade he has examined written and visual records of the Australian landscape. He has uncovered an extraordinarily complex system of land management using fire, the life cycles of native plants, and the natural flow of water to ensure plentiful wildlife and plant foods throughout the year. We know Aboriginal people spent far less time and effort than Europeans in securing food and shelter ... . With details of land-management strategies from around Australia, The biggest estate on earth rewrites the history of this continent, with huge implications for us today."--Dust cover.

RBG copies 1 and 2: Reprinted 2012.

RBG copy 2: ARCUE, ref. no. 5005.