Aboriginal

The Aboriginal / Settler Clash in Van Diemen’s Land 1803-1831 – N.J.B. Plomley

Published in 1992 by the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston, where Plomley was at the time an Honorary Research Assistant and the University of Tasmania. Described as their “Occasional Paper No 6”. Very hard to find a copy.

Printed internally on what A4 sized paper, one hundred pages, staple bound, binder’s tape, cream heavy card covers, image to front on a conflict ex Bonwick. Fine and clean.

The structure of the work is interesting, twenty-six pages of narrative, bibliography, tables of Aboriginal population, rather sad graphs of the decline and the level of incidents which peaked in 1830, numerous maps of Tasmania showing the location of clashes and a lengthy table of the nature of those clashed.

Sobering history not to be ignored …

$50.00

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Companion to Tasmanian History – Alison Alexander.

A substantial book published by the Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies at the University of Tasmania in 2005. Presumably a small print run or limited dispersion as every hard to find.

A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Thick quarto, 568 pages, illustrated and with end paper maps. A very heavy book that may require a postage supplement.

Alison Alexander was the editor of this book the contents of which were written by a number of distinguished Tasmanian historians.

The first 397 pages, after preliminaries is devoted to an A-Z of Tasmanian History the format making if a useful and wholesome reference guide. The reminder is made up of Thematic Articles by numerous specialists … Aboriginality; Britishness; Class; Convicts; Exile; Place; Shelter; Identity etc. It all ends with a good list of aboriginal place names and some less interesting elements to do with the legal system.

All up a very useful all round Tasmanian History reference, up to date but rarely found.

Weighty Tasmanian History by Our Top Historians.

$80.00

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The Cruise of the Freak – Mission to the Islands – the Missionary Voyages in Bass Strait of Canon Marcus Brownrigg 1872-1885 – Edited and introduced by Stephen Murray-Smith

Published by Foot and Playsted in 1987. Unusual style dust wrappered Soft cover, xxxv, ii, 244 pages, some illustrations, a fine copy.

The editor provides a lengthy and worthwhile introduction, including a list and biography/ context of the principal personalities.

This is a reprint of a rare and sought after 19thC voyage account. The original title being … The Cruise of the Freak – A narrative of a Visit to the Islands in Bass and Banks Straits with some Account of the Islands – this contains thirteen voyages in all

Not an unlucky number for Brownrigg.

$40.00

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The Tasmanians (The Story of a Doomed Race) – Robert Travers

First edition published in 1968 by Cassell Australia in very good condition. Octavo.243 pages, illustrated.

Travers’ honest account put down in some detail.

Starts with the people themselves, their supposed origins, their way of living, their taboos, their fragility. .

the arrival of the European explorers – Dutch, French and the English/ and then the convicts and settlers.

The drift of settler society .. bush rangers, sealers and the “wild men” of Hobart Town.

And, the War the Line and Robinson and the Banishment

$40.00

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Thomas Bock’s Portraits of the Tasmanian Aborigines – N.J.B. Plomley

A scarce works by the hard working uneven tempered Plomley. For years the provenance of various Bock portraits of the last full blood Tasmanian aborigines was a mystery. There is collection at the Pitt Rivers Museum Oxford and a few at the Royal Anthropological Society in the England as well as the private Fuller collection an two original at the Tasmanian Museum Hobart. Copies at the British Museum by Thomas’s son Alfred who also had a good hand but not quite as pater, similarly a raft of images at the Tasmanian Museum by Alfred and at the British Museum by J. Grey after T Bock.

Published by the Queen Victoria Museum Launceston and edited by their Direct Frank Ellis. Larger format card cover, 25 pages, 10 pages plates of the portraits. Super condition.

The care that Plomley made to unravel all of this is impressive. It involves collections made to the Franklin’s and the handwriting of Lady Franklin comes into play. And also a collection for G.A. Robinson who both befriended and rounded up the last of the race.

All up this is a most interesting and thorough piece of art investigation. If done today for sure there would be a television three part series all about it. Maybe someone should still do that!?

Thomas Bock’s Historic Paintings and the Mystery that Surrounds Them

$80.00

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The Native Tribes of Tasmania – J.E. Calder

Impossible to get as an original Hobart 1875 edition and this facsimile by Fullers, Hobart produced in 1972 is not in sight on any web engine, online bookshop.

Octavo, 115 pages plus appendix, a true facsimile of the original. Owners bookplate on front paste down.

Full Title explains … Some Account of the War, Extirpation, Habits etc of the Native Tribes of Tasmania. So much about the terrible going on. Limited page numbers belies the extent of the content given the small print copied from the period.

Native Tribes the word from 1875 on the War.

$80.00

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The Aboriginal / Settler Clash in Van Diemen’s Land 1803-1831 – N.J.B. Plomley

Companion to Tasmanian History – Alison Alexander.

The Cruise of the Freak – Mission to the Islands – the Missionary Voyages in Bass Strait of Canon Marcus Brownrigg 1872-1885 – Edited and introduced by Stephen Murray-Smith

The Tasmanians (The Story of a Doomed Race) – Robert Travers

Thomas Bock’s Portraits of the Tasmanian Aborigines – N.J.B. Plomley

The Native Tribes of Tasmania – J.E. Calder

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