Swan Hill by Arthur Feldtmann (Second Hand Book)

SECOND HAND BOOK – EX-LIBRARY

Swan Hill, one of Victoria’s finest cities, developed on the “isolated and remarkable” feature named by Major Thomas Mitchell on 21 June 1836 because of the number of black swans which lived there. This book tells the story of Swan Hill from that day till this, in one of the most comprehensive local histories ever published in Australia.

In the beginning, squatters like Suetonius Officer took up huge tracts of land, and despite marauding Aborigines established big sheep stations there. One of the earliest was Tyntynder, of which the homestead still stands. Swan Hill was originally a hamlet of only four families, but more people migrated northwards, Land Acts changed the character of settlement, and the town began to grow.

Swan Hill folk welcomed the river’s first paddlesteamers, the Cobb & Co. coaches, bullock wagons, the Burke and Wills expedition, and eventually the railway which ended their isolation. The days in which “distance was measured by the number of pipes smoked” changed into a new era of development. Irrigation, fire protection, education, police, health, and postal services, a newspaper, and many other activities were the concern of the townsfolk and of the sturdy families from the surrounding Mallee as Swan Hill grew in importance.

The lives of such people are woven into a narrative full of human interest, with many colourful details of the everyday life of those who pioneered the inland settlement of Victoria.

Specifications:

Condition: Good – ex-library book, cover is plastic wrapped with library stickers, inside covers have library stamps, slight page yellowing.

Publisher: Rigby

Year: 1973

Format: Hardback, with dustjacket

Pages: 226pp

ISBN: 0851796575

$12.00

1 in stock