Echuca Historical Society has released a reprint, a rare opportunity to acquire this remarkable work, which was out of print.
Margaret Hart said Curr’s accounts of the people, the countryside, the emerging cities and the first Australians is a surprisingly “homely” account of life on the frontier in the 1840s.
She added the book, in which Curr published observations from his life as a squatter, would even go on to play a part in the Yorta Yorta Native Title claim.
“Based on the author’s personal experiences and observations, between 1841 and 1851 (on July 1 that year Victoria became a colony in its own right, breaking away from government by Sydney) it is a disarming overview of what in many ways was as tumultuous a time as it was and period of political and social evolution,” Ms Hart said.
“He described Melbourne as a ‘champagne-loving little town’ as well as writing about the ticket-of-leave and former convicts spreading across the state — and the all powerful Commissioner of Crown Lands.
“Curr also paid great attention to the native population; he did his best to record more than 200 dialects and detailed the lives and cultures of around 100 tribes at the same time.”
Ms Hart said the thing she believed would most appeal to locals would be Curr’s recounting of the gradual incursion of farmers, moving inland from Melbourne and/or coming down the broad expanses of NSW to the Murray and beyond.
She said Curr’s description of the unexpected beauty of land between places such as Colbinabbin and Tongala, which he would note in his preface when the book was finally printed in 1883: “Colbinabbin was a handsome piece of country, with its timber-dotted ranges, richly-grassed plains, and pleasant little creek embowered in gum-trees, and so superior in the matter of grass to Tongala that I should have ended my travels there had it not been for the scarcity of water. As it was, I was very loath to leave it”.
And then was just as disappointed to write in the 1880s that “altogether, fences and tree-ringing have not improved the scene”.
“This really is an engaging read; and the author’s position on how so much changed so quickly between his years on the land in that decade and the 1880s when it was first published, provide a remarkable insight of the colonial mind at the time and its opinions on the incredible differences that swept through that part of our history,” Ms Hart said.
“Recollections is one of the more remarkable accounts of not just life in colonial Victoria but life around our towns of today.
“Readers will be able to identify many of the places discussed, and the images used, and get a different perspective on the people and places that went into creating the world in which we live today — I cannot recommend this book strongly enough and it makes a fantastic gift for family and friends.”
Recollections of Squatting in Victoria is published by Echuca Historical Society with the support of the Holsworth Foundation.
This book has been out of publication for several years but because of ongoing requests for it, the society has released a reprint of the 2001 second edition.
It is now available for $35.
Pick up a copy from the Echuca Historical Society Museum, 1 Dickson Street, Echuca or email your request to eh.soc@bigpond.com
