Thirty years ago, wanting to probe deeper into the question of what it meant to make home in Tasmania, I enrolled to do my honours year at the University of Tasmania. During a discussion with the secretary of the History Department about my partially formed dissertation ideas, she urged me to read a thesis by a recent graduate whose work had greatly impressed her: one Richard Flanagan. When I read ... (read more)
James Boyce
James Boyce is a Hobart-based writer and historian. His books include Van Diemen’s Land (2008) and Losing Streak: How Tasmania was gamed by the gambling industry (2017). His latest book is Imperial Mud: The Fight for the Fens (2020).
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Before reading Richard Flanagan’s new book, Toxic: The rotting underbelly of the Tasmanian salmon industry, it is useful to remember that Australia’s southern isle was once the penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land. During the first fifty years of the colony’s existence, a small ruling élite achieved a near monopoly over the island’s mos ... (read more)