The Fatal Shore
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The Fatal Shore. The epic of Australia's founding, by Robert Hughes, published 1987 by Harvill Press, is a historical account of the United Kingdom's settlement of Australia as a penal colony with convicts. The book details the period 1770 onwards through white settlement to the 1840s, when Australia was established as a European outpost. The book explains many of the origins of the Australian character and being, such as the Australian support for Bushrangers, the underdog and the dislike between the English and Irish and their religions. It won the prestigious WH Smith Literary Award in 1988.
The book focuses on the historical, political and sociological reasons that led to white settlement. The book has five key directions:
- The difficulty of transportation in the 1780s and of hardship endured in establishing the colony.
- The construction of the convict population, their mental state, sexuality and relationship to their masters and Aborigines.
- Other penal colonies including Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land, and the torturous life of the convicts there.
- The established colonial outposts and the establishment of social institutions that would shape Australian society and culture.
Notable quotes from The Fatal Shore.
- Britain “had hoped that ... [transportation] would do four things: sublimate, deter, reform and colonise.”
