Violet Town or Honeysuckle in Australia Felix: 1836-1908 by Don Chambers (Second Hand Book)

SECOND HAND BOOK – EX-LIBRARY

Though Hume and Hovell had passed the southern extremity of the district in 1824, and returned to Goulburn through the heart of the later Shire of Violet Town, their direct impact on the area was negligible compared with that of Mitchell. Hume’s account of his journey does not evoke the pleasant sensations of Australia Felix acquired by a reading of Mitchell’s journal entries. By early 1839 overlanding squatters had renamed the Violet Creek, dubbing it the Honeysuckle, a popular name for the straggling half-dead banksia growing beside it.

The earlier pastoral settlement of this section of Mitchell’s Track was, like settlement in the Western District of Victoria, largely a story of Scots abroad; and it is difficult to believe that they were not impelled by the published accounts of Mitchell’s Violet Ponds, later reinforced by the knowledge of a local survey for a main Sydney Road township site.

Violet Town was the earliest surveyed inland township and, because of its position on Mitchell’s Track and the Sydney Road (later Beechworth Road), it participated directly in all major themes of nineteenth-century Australian history. The story of Violet Town throws new light on the traditional Aboriginal, squatting, land, gold-rush and agricultural themes, at the same time providing a unique study of rural municipal politics and government before 1900.

Specifications:

Condition: Good – ex-library book, spine has library sticker, inside covers have library stamps and labels, pages have library stamp, slight fading on spine.

Publisher: Melbourne University Press

Year: 1985

Format: Hardback, with dust jacket

Pages: 354pp

ISBN: 0522843018

$15.00

1 in stock