Van Diemen’s Land

New edition with a foreword by Richard Flanagan

Almost half of the convicts who came to Australia came to Van Diemen's Land. There they found a land of bounty and a penal society, a kangaroo economy and a new way of life.

In this multi-award-winning history of colonial Tasmania, James Boyce shows how the newcomers were changed by the natural world they encountered. Escaping authority, they soon settled away from the towns, dressing in kangaroo skin and living off the land. 

Behind the official attempt to create a Little England was another story of adaptation, in which the poor, the exiled and the criminal made a new home in a strange land.

This is their story, the story of Van Diemen's Land.

About the Author

James Boyce is the multi-award-winning author of Born Bad, 1835, Van Diemen’s Land and Losing Streak: How Tasmania Was Gamed by the Gambling Industry. 1835 won the Age Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, the Western Australian Premier’s Book Award, the Adelaide Festival Award for Literature, and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Losing Streak was shortlisted for a Walkley Book Award and won the People’s Choice Award at the 2017 Tasmania Book Prizes. Boyce has a PhD from the University of Tasmania where he is an honorary research associate in the School of Geography and Environmental Studies.