Colonial Adventure by Ken Gelder, Rachael Weaver

Australian narratives of colonial discovery

Adventure was one of the grand narratives of colonisation, which saw European powers sending agents off to new and distant worlds. Their journeys didn't always follow a straight line. Some were shipwrecked, lost or marooned; adventure turned into misadventure. Others left the colony as soon as they arrived. Convicts fled to Timor, China, and South America, while bushrangers roamed the country, antagonising colonial authorities.

But when adventurers directly served the interests of colonisation, they could be violent, ruthless, and brutally racist, rapaciously seeking profit and property. Many adventurers went wherever ambition took them, killing and dispossessing Aboriginal people and claiming ownership of their lands. By examining colonial adventure narratives in all their rawness and complexity, this book asks us to reflect on the continuing legacies of colonisation in Australia today.