Passages to the Northwest

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This book traces the author's settler-forebears and their migration to Australia, where they sought new lives in penal settlements, "free" farms, or small coastal townships. Some ancestors sailed from Ireland, escaping a crushed Catholic rebellion and a devastating potato famine. Others came from Scotland, where lowland farmers were developing capitalist farming practices, and from England, where the masses gradually pushed for political reform. German ancestors faced a lack of political change, as their leaders resisted popular will. In 1788, New Holland was entirely Aboriginal land, but by 1815, drovers and shepherds began moving cattle and sheep into the interior, facing resistance from the 'First Australians' before establishing dominance. By 1860, many of the author's ancestors had settled in the inner northwest of New South Wales, becoming publicans and sheep farmers on the rich grasslands known as Gabawaan Gamilaraay, or 'greater Gamilaraay'—today's Liverpool Plains. By this time, a few slab huts had been transformed into drinking houses, laying the groundwork for future village life, while campsites of dray-men and their bullocks began to resemble riverside towns.