Van Diemen's Land as a case study in nineteenth-century European expansion and imperialism.

This is the first detailed examination of land alienation and land use by white settlers in an Australian colony. It treats the first decades of settlement in Van Diemen's Land, encompassing the effects of the European invasion on Aboriginal society, the early history of environmental degradation, the island's society history and the growth of primary industry. The book presents vivid insights into nineteenth-century society, where wool was so useless that it was burnt, and farmers lived in fear of bushrangers and Aborigines. We see how individuals were constrained by the rigid expectations of race, class and gender in a society where no white man ever stood trial for rape or murder of a black. Drawing on contemporary diaries and letters, as well as government statistics, manuals for intending settlers and newspaper reports, Sharon Morgan has built up a comprehensive picture of the significance of landscape and land use in early colonial society.

List of illustrations
Note on currency and measurements
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The alienation of land and spread of settlement
2. Ambitious, avaricious men: an examination of land grantees, 1804-1823
3. 'A very comfortable situation': a social history of land settlement
4. The 'best kind of property': farmers and livestock in early Van Diemen's Land
5. Agriculture
6. A 'luscious abundance': colonial gardens and gardening
7. 'If it moves, shoot it': the impact of European settlement on the environment
8. Farming in a convict colony: the problems of the bush
9. A 'sadistic frenzy': European-Aboriginal contact
Conclusion
Appendices
Abbreviations
Notes
Select bibliography
Index.