Wild rivers a cage for Aborigines

This article was published in The Sydney Morning Herald 20 September 2010

''With the natives we are hand in glove. They throng the camp every day, and sometimes by their clamour and importunity for bread and meat (of which they now all eat greedily) are become very troublesome. God knows, we have little enough for ourselves! . . . The convicts continue to behave pretty well; three only have been hanged since the arrival of the last fleet.''

Watkin Tench 1788

This quote comes from one of the most important books ever written about Australia, the journal by a young Royal Marines officer, Watkin Tench, a member of the First Fleet. Tench recorded, with vivid and sympathetic detail, the first contact between the indigenous population and European settlers. He did not condescend towards the native population.

His account caused a sensation. It was a bestseller when published in 1789, but fell into obscurity for more than 200 years until his work was revived and republished in 1996, under the title 1788, thanks to Tim Flannery.