A wild history : the making of Victoria River pastoral society / Darrell Lewis

Abstract

This thesis examines the formation of settler society in the Victoria River district of the Northern Territory. It is a fine-grained study of individuals, their stories and their actions, many aspects of which have not been addressed or examined as closely elsewhere in Australia. Within the matrix of this story are characters whose lives give flesh and blood to many of the key icons of European mythology - the brave explorers, the noble pioneers, the "wild blacks", the wild bush and "the battler". Beginning with the experiences of the European explorers and continuing through the period when the big stations were formed and on to the time of the "small men" - cattle duffers, and others with more legitimate aims - the thesis looks closely at the process of settlement. It focuses on the interaction of the whites with the Aborigines, with each other and with the environment, showing how these and other factors laid the foundations of a unique frontier society.