1787: The Lost Chapters of Australia's Beginnings

by Nick Brodie

‘If we broaden our gaze, our story will get bigger.’

Nick Brodie’s 1787 traces the history of Australia before the First Fleet. Usually treated as a preface to the main story – a brief interlude that starts 50,000 years before the present and ends as sails are seen on an eastern horizon – the time before European settlement is so much more. In 1787 the peoples of Australia were not simply living in a timeless ‘Dreamtime’, following the seasons, and waiting for colonisation by Britain in 1788.

Nick Brodie uses the sailors, writers, scientists, and other visitors to our shores to reassess neglected chapters of Australia’s early history. Brodie turns the narratives of ‘exploration’ and ‘discovery’ around to take a closer look at the indigenous peoples, the broader regional scene, and what these encounters collectively tell. This is the sweeping story of Greater Australasia and its peoples, a long-overdue challenge to the myth that Australia’s story started in 1788.

About the author: Dr Nick Brodie is a historian, archaeologist, and writer. Nick’s previous book, Kin, was published to critical acclaim in 2015.

Praise for Kin:

‘[In] his richly multilayered tale … he skilfully interweaves European contact with Aboriginal and Islander peoples’.

Ross Fitzgerald, Emeritus Professor of History & Politics in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Genres: History, Australia, Nonfiction

350 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2016

Reviews

[Graham Catt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brodie’s book examines European contact with Australasia prior to 1788, including the explorations of Tasman, Dampier and Cook, their experiences with indigenous people, wildlife and landscapes.

The author’s aim is to avoid myth and propaganda, and reveal the truth of these early contacts, which he does quite well.

An interesting read.

[Carissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading the blurb, I have to admit I wasn't too excited at the prospect of reading yet another (possibly politically charged) Australian frontier history. The cover of '1787' implies a little more than what you actually get from the book, as it alludes to the 50,000 year history of Australia before European habitation. So when I opened the book to find the story starting in the 17th century, I was admittedly confused.

First things first: I really liked this book. Two things really struck me: a) how Brodie tried to break down the notion of epochs and historical 'firsts', and b) the way he reframed 'Australian' history as the history of Greater Australasia. As historians, it can still be so tempting to think about history in terms of firsts and discoveries and inaugurations - especially if we are writing for clients who are interested in those things! It can also be tempting to define a nation's history in similar ways, focusing on the moment of geopolitical unity as the beginning of the story. To say this approach is over-simplistic seems obvious…but so many still do it!

I think '1787' significantly altered my perspective on Australian/Greater Australasian history…mostly because I was completely ignorant of what was occurring in the region before the First Fleet! Before reading '1787', I knew very little about Eurasian contact with Greater Australasia. So in that sense, it added a lot to my knowledge of Australian history.
Keen to find out what other readers thought, I checked out Goodreads, where a couple of people complained that Brodie's work "adds nothing" to Australian historical studies and simply rehashes what is already known. Each to their own!

I wasn't entirely convinced that '1787' was the best title, however, and kept forgetting what the 'idea' of 1787 was. Brodie goes to such great lengths breaking down epochs, that it seems almost paradoxical to focus on a single titular year. It kind of did my head in, trying to think about Australian history in broader and more fluid terms…but closing the book every night to see '1787' stamped on the front. I'm certainly looking forward to reading everyone else's thoughts on this!

Things I found exemplary…I particularly liked how Brodie contextualised his sources. He definitely put a lot of thought into each source's purpose - whether it was intended for wider publication, and what the influences may have been on the writer's viewpoints. This is carried out particularly well in the sections on Cook's voyages. I think Brodie has done a great job in collating what was a very sparsely documented region before British settlement.
Having said that, there is quite a clear hole in '1787's research, and that is the Indigenous perspective. In discussing Portuguese/Spanish encounters with Indigenous people in the Torres Strait, Brodie briefly alludes to the role that other disciplines (i.e. archaeology) may have in uncovering the history of that area. He doesn't exactly say that it's beyond the capabilities of the history profession, but that's the impression I got.
There were times when the relevance of stories was lost on me. The two chapters on Ship Cove were incredibly detailed and padded out, but it wasn't until the very end when Brodie made the explicit parallel with New South Wales, that I understood what was going on.
My final (petty) gripe is that there's no regional map! The pictures are lovely, but I would have really appreciated some kind of visual reference for reframing Australia as 'Greater Australasia'.


Finally: would I recommend this book to someone else? Yes! A lot of people I know seem to have a common and simplified idea of Australia's history - myself included, before I read '1787'. Brodie's narrative style is highly engaging, and I like to think that others will enjoy learning something new about Australian history.

[Sean Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book is interesting and the author presents some thought provoking opinions regarding European contact throughout Australasia pre 1788, the title of the volume is somewhat misleading.

Rather than presenting 'the lost chapters of Australia's beginnings' as promised, the book merely rehashes journal and diary entries from mariner/explorers such as Dampier, Tasman, Marion, Cook and Banks, all of which have been heavily documented in the past and are readily available to all.

While I understand the author's approach of trying to put the European 'discovery' of Australasia and its impact on local indigenous populations into the context of an ever expanding frontier, there is just nothing new in the material presented.

[PQz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was sadly a very disappointing read: given the cover and the subtitle, I really expected the book to cover the 60,000 years of Australian history that tend to be forgotten or relegated to a couple of paragraphs at the start of post-1788 historiography.
The book itself is interesting and provides some insight on all the other white men who came to Australia before Cook (as well as Cook's multiple visits to the region). But it does read like if the author had an axe to grind with Cook and goes out of his way to point out Cook's lack of exceptional significance in the grand scheme of European exploration of the region.
No effort at all is put into providing insight into the other side of these encounters - not even the name of the peoples who occupied the landing areas or an attempt at translating the very limited records of what was said.

[Aritro Abedin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read which places the settlement of Australia into a broader historical context, beginning in
1606. Those familiar with the many Spanish, Portugese, French and British explorer accounts covered in this book might find it to be a rehash, but for me it was all fascinating and Brodie's ability to craft a compelling narrative is the book's great strength. He also effectively achieves his aim of broadening the reader's perspective beyond "Australia's settlement began in 1788" to understanding that Australia was just one part of a frontier which slowly came into the Eurasian orbit over two centuries of contact, trade and political relationships between Europeans, Asians and the native societies of Greater Australasia.

[Damon Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed how this book attempts to describe Australia’s interaction with the world as waves of intersection within a larger global picture. It is a different approach from most Australian histories of this period that simply break it down into pre and post Cook or pre and post First Fleet. I found this book nuanced and intelligent in analysis, whilst in terms of narrative quite accessible.
Good book, worth a read.

[John Dawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

While there are some interesting gems in this book, especially for someone like me who wants to understand our history better, overall I found the writing style undirected, and the narrative and stories never really
meshed, especially where the author came in and tried to explain his thoughts on history and how we should interpret it. So I guess I'm glad i stumbled on this book and as it was free (amazon prime) I'm OK with reading it but it's not a book i'd direct anyone to read.

[Sally Piper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides a well researched, fascinating and informative alternative narrative to the dominant one Australians read or are taught in schools about Australia's "discovery". A great companion read to Bruce Pascoe's 'Dark Emu'.

[Sally O'wheel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate Nick Brodie's meticulous work. Here he has used the sources to tell the many stories of encounters between Europeans and Australians going back to the 17th Century. Interesting and erudite.

[Kat Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book which clearly outlines the challenges faced by the Frist Nation peoples of Australia and the surrounding islands. We can all learn something from it.

[Sandy Sexton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using primary sources of ship logs, journals and writings of sailors, scientists and traders, Brodie explores what we know of the early people of Australasia before 1788.

[Alan Bevan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating account of the numerous European encounters with Australians prior to 1787. It is convincing in its thesis that the significance of 1787 is overrated.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read. A valuable insight to an often neglected part of our region’s history.

[Iain Hawkes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't really a "lost chapters" book, more a "hey, here's a bunch of stuff done by people other than Captain Cook, though I'm still going to focus on Cook a lot."

Alright, that's not fair, but as a book that's more or less selling itself on exploration of the Australasian region, it didn't cover much I wasn't already aware of, such as the Dutch and William Dampier. On the other hand, the book is kind of setting itself against the idea of 'hard dates,' (in this case, 1770 and 1778), and in that case, it succeeds. Really, the most interesting thing about it was Spanish exploration of the region, and the various tribal dynamics that were at play, not to mention the presence of Arabic and Moor sailors also coming into the region. Basically, it casts the Australasian region in the context of an ever-expanding frontier, and details meetings of different peoples that are sometimes friendly, and sometimes not.

Anyway, decent read, but the title arguably oversells what's in the book proper.

[Benjamin Farr · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book about the forgotten and often over-looked pre-colonial era of Australia and Oceania. Brodie has presented a well-researched, informative and engaging book about Indigenous Australians and their interaction with Europeans prior to 1788. Highly recommend.

[Tianne Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this as an ARC but found despite it being historically correct it was more text book like than informative. It felt disjointed int the chapters

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some history books where, having read them, you know there has been a shift in your awareness. You return to ideas and concepts that you had never questioned before, and see them anew. This is such a book. Brodie eschews the idea of our continent sitting isolated at the bottom of the globe and instead knits Australia into Eurasia and a trading network frontier that connected the northern and southern hemispheres. Although the book is called ‘1787’ (a curious choice given his challenge to what he calls “the arbitrariness of epochs”) it spans the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and expands its view to the current peripheries of Australasia, including New Zealand Tasmania, New Guinea and the Torres Strait.
Read my complete review at:
https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2...