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Book Cover
Book
Author Gammage, Bill.

Title The biggest estate on earth : how Aborigines made Australia / Bill Gammage
Published Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2011

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  305.89915 Gam/Beo  AVAILABLE
 W'BOOL  305.89915 Gam/Beo  DUE 13-12-23
 WATERFT  305.89915 Gam/Beo  DUE 04-04-24
 MELB  305.89915 Gam/Beo  DUE 01-03-24
 NIKERII  IN PROCESS
Description xxiii, 434 pages : color illustrations, maps ; 26 cm
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
Analysis Aboriginal australians
History
Human ecology
Land management
Land use
Natural resources
Notes N copy signed and inscribed by the author, 3 August 2013. ANL
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 379-415) and index
Audience General
Tertiary/Undergraduate
Notes NSW Premier's Literary Award, Douglas Stewart Prize: Shortlist (2013)
Prime Minister's Literary Awards: Prize for Australian History, 2012
Description based on print version record
Subject Aboriginal Australians -- Agriculture -- History.
Aboriginal Australians -- Agriculture.
Aboriginal Australians -- Fire use -- History.
Aboriginal Australians -- Fire use.
Aboriginal Australians -- History.
Burning of land -- Environmental aspects.
Burning of land -- Australia -- History.
Fire ecology -- Australia.
Human ecology -- Australia -- History.
Land use -- Australia -- History.
Land use -- Australia -- Management -- History.
Land use -- Australia.
Dreamtime (Aboriginal Australian mythology)
Fire management -- Australia -- History.
Natural resources -- Management.
Natural resources -- Australia -- Management -- History.
Land use -- Australia -- Northern Territory.
Shifting cultivation -- Australia.
Environment -- Land management.
Plants -- Eucalypts.
Environment -- Land management -- Fire.
Religion -- Totemism.
Settlement and contacts -- Colonisation -- 1788-1850.
SUBJECT Australia -- History. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85009591
Author Ebooks Corporation.
LC no. 2011514487
ISBN 9781742377483 (hbk.)