Australian History
Book Details

Strangers in a Foreign Land

The Journal of Niel Black and Other Voices from the Western District

Maggie MacKellar

Drawing on the extensive collections of the State Library of Victoria, Strangers in a Foreign Land provides rare insight into the realities of early settlement in Victoria.

Opinion

‘Although it has been typeset for case reading, it remains faithful to the origanal format od a small octavo size, like the origanal, s that we too, like Niel Black, can put it in our pockets and refer to it at leisure.’
Hamilton Spectator 8/3/2008

'HISTORIAN MAGGIE Mackellar tells of the drama of the settlement of the Western District largely through journals that were kept by squatters and their families.'
The Age, 5/7/08

About this Title

When Niel Black, one of the most influential settlers of the Western District of Victoria, stepped onto the sand at Port Phillip Bay in 1839 and declared Melbourne to be 'almost altogether a Scotch settlement', he was paying the newly created outpost of the British Empire his highest compliment.

His journal, reproduced here in its entirety, provides rare insight into the realities of early settlement in Victoria, detailing experiences of personal hardship and physical danger as well as the potential for accumulating great wealth and success.

Drawing on the extensive collections of the State Library of Victoria, Strangers in a Foreign Land also includes glimpses into the lives of other settlers and the indigenous people of the area. It evokes the sense of place and dislocation that the early settlers encountered, and the hopes and anxieties they carried with them as they created new homes in Australia.

About the Author

Maggie MacKellar is an academic and an historian. Throughout her career she has written on the comparative experiences of women working on the land; her first book, Core of My Heart My Country, was about the role of women on the frontiers of Australia and Canada. In 2005 she moved to the central west of New South Wales to write full time. Strangers in a Foreign Land is her second book.

Book Preview

978-0-522-85512-8