The First Residents Of Melbourne's Western Region: Revised Edition
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Long before the city of Melbourne rose from the banks of the Yarra, the western plains were home to the Kulin nations — sovereign peoples whose complex societies, deep spiritual traditions, and intimate knowledge of Country shaped the land for thousands of years. The First Residents of Melbourne's Western Region by Gary Presland is a meticulous and deeply humane work of historical scholarship that chronicles the lives, customs, and cultures of the Aboriginal peoples who inhabited Melbourne's western corridor prior to and during the era of European colonisation. Drawing on archaeological evidence, early settler accounts, and anthropological records, Presland reconstructs a vivid portrait of a world that colonial expansion sought to erase, detailing social structures, ceremonial life, subsistence patterns, and the devastating impact of dispossession. Presland, a respected figure in Melbourne's regional history and natural history writing, brings both scholarly rigour and genuine empathy to a subject too long relegated to the margins of mainstream Australian historiography. This revised edition reflects updated research and a renewed commitment to acknowledging First Peoples' heritage as central — not peripheral — to understanding the true history of one of Australia's great cities. For readers of Indigenous history, urban heritage, and colonial studies alike, this work poses an urgent and quietly haunting question: what is a city built upon, and who were the first to call it home?
Author: Gary Presland
Format: Paperback
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Long before the city of Melbourne rose from the banks of the Yarra, the western plains were home to the Kulin nations — sovereign peoples whose complex societies, deep spiritual traditions, and intimate knowledge of Country shaped the land for thousands of years. The First Residents of Melbourne's Western Region by Gary Presland is a meticulous and deeply humane work of historical scholarship that chronicles the lives, customs, and cultures of the Aboriginal peoples who inhabited Melbourne's western corridor prior to and during the era of European colonisation. Drawing on archaeological evidence, early settler accounts, and anthropological records, Presland reconstructs a vivid portrait of a world that colonial expansion sought to erase, detailing social structures, ceremonial life, subsistence patterns, and the devastating impact of dispossession. Presland, a respected figure in Melbourne's regional history and natural history writing, brings both scholarly rigour and genuine empathy to a subject too long relegated to the margins of mainstream Australian historiography. This revised edition reflects updated research and a renewed commitment to acknowledging First Peoples' heritage as central — not peripheral — to understanding the true history of one of Australia's great cities. For readers of Indigenous history, urban heritage, and colonial studies alike, this work poses an urgent and quietly haunting question: what is a city built upon, and who were the first to call it home?