Whilst researching The Rebellion Trilogy I drafted a series of papers on different aspects of colonial rule in Australia that contributed, some more than others, to the published works. [1] This was part of the process of drafting the book into a form that combined a narrative of the key events, their causation and consequences with a critique of that narrative through examining linkage and remembrance. Some of the papers were simply sketches of ideas and issues that I explored in greater depth in the published work while others from the outset were more substantial pieces that, in some cases, did not figure in the published work at all. This collection of essays brings together some of those jottings, with their inevitable repetition, and considers various aspects of the history of Australia from its beginnings as a penal colony at Botany Bay through to the advent of responsible government in the mid-1850s. I have taken the opportunity to rewrite most of the original papers in the light of further research. As with the volumes on Upper and Lower Canada, to afford the essays a coherence that they lack individually I have grouped them into six broad areas providing each with an introduction.
The two volumes in Australia, 1780-1880 will be published in two formats. There are two printed volumes and a single Kindle volume that contains both printed volumes.
[1] Brown, Richard, Three Rebellions: Canada 1837-1838, South Wales 1839 and Australia 1854, (Clio Publishing), 2010, Famine, Fenians and Freedom, 1840-1882, (Clio Publishing), 2011, and Resistance and Rebellion in the British Empire, 1600-1980, (Clio Publishing), 2012.