Triumph Of The Nomads: Geoffrey Blainey

Ancient Australia is often seen as a land of stagnation, and the early Australians long depicted as one of the most primitive peoples on earth. But Professor Blainey presents a different picture - in which the aboriginals were triumphant in their discovery of the land, their adaptation to it and in their mastery of its contrasting cliates, seasons and resources. Generations of aboriginals saw the great rising of the seas which isolated Australian and the sweeping changes in vegetation and wildlife. Far from being prisoners of a hostile continent, they created a lifestyle which suited their environment; established a network of overland commerce; found new medicines and drugs; developed ingenious ways of finding water in the desert; they were skilled hunters and herbalists and probably had a more varied - and more assured diet than most Europeans in the eighteenth century. Their nomadic wandering followed a logical pattern, reflecting forethought and knowledge of the land. An original and refreshing examination of the aboriginals' early complex society and economic structure.