The Blackheath History Forum finish up their 2017 program with a talk by Professor Grace Karskens on recovering the Hawkesbury’s vanished places.
Grace is fascinated by lost places: the physical processes and politics by which one landscape succeeds another over time; the way we can read markers of earlier, phases in later landscapes; and the impacts these vast changes have on people. Her talk will present and discuss four elemental stories from her forthcoming book People of the River (Allen & Unwin), a history of Aboriginal and settler peoples on the Hawkesbury-Nepean River from deep time to about 1830. These stories sketch out new ways to understand people and country in early colonial Australia, exploring the profound power of the bush and the river in shaping human destiny and sense of place in this country.
Professor Grace Karskens is a historian, writer and teacher. She is a leading authority on early colonial Australia and teaches Australian history at the University of New South Wales. Her books include Inside the Rocks: The Archaeology of a Neighbourhood and the multi-award winning The Rocks: Life in Early Sydney. Her latest book, The Colony: A History of Early Sydney, won the 2010 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction and the US Urban History Association’s prize for Best Book 2010. Her next book is People of the River, a history of Aboriginal and settler peoples on the Hawkesbury-Nepean River from deep time to about 1830.
When: Saturday 21 October 2017, 4pm.
Where: Blackheath Public School, Leichhardt St, Blackheath NSW 2785
Cost: $5
Contact: garyw56wserskey@gmail.com