Description
In 1831, Thomas Scott Townsend joined the Surveyor General’s Department in New South Wales as a draftsman, aged 18. By the end of his career, Townsend had become the greatest of all the surveyors who mapped the wild Australian Alps. He was the first European to identify the source of the Murray River and to traverse the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains, and in 1847 he stood on the summit of Mt Kosciuszko, quite possibly the first colonist to do so.
These and other feats earned him the admiration of his superiors. The country’s second highest mountain was named in his honour. And yet his career was barely noticed by the public during his lifetime. Today, the role he played in the colonisation of south-eastern Australia is largely forgotten.
Townsend of the Ranges reveals a chronicle of compelling human interest, a tale of sacrifice and suffering that deserves to be widely known. But, more than this, Townsend’s career is entwined with the story of how Europeans ‘settled’ the south-east by seizing it from First Nations peoples. This violent history is charted in parallel with Townsend’s story, focusing in particular on the Kulin Nation, the Gunaikurnai of Gippsland and the Ngarigo of Monaro.
Specifications:
Publisher: National Library of Australia Publishing
Year: 2024
Format: Paperback
Pages: 352pp
ISBN: 9781922507693
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