You're invited to an evening with Mark McKenna, author of From the Edge-Australia’s lost histories, and winner of the 2017 NSW Premier’s History Award. About the Author Mark McKenna is one of Australia’s leading historians, based at the University of Sydney. He is the author of several prize-winning books, including From the Edge: Australia’s Lost Histories (Melbourne University Publishing, 2016), which won the Australian History Prize at the 2017 NSW Premier’s History Awards. Mark’s ‘Moment of Truth: History and Australia’s Future’ features in the latest Quarterly Essay. His other publications include a biography of historian Manning Clark, An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark (Melbourne University Publishing, 2011), which won the Prime Minister’s award for non-fiction and the Victorian, NSW and South Australian premiers’ non-fiction awards, and Looking for Blackfellas’ Point: An Australian History of Place (NewSouth, 2002). About the Book In March 1797, Ninety Mile Beach, Victoria, five British sailors and twelve Bengali seamen swim ashore after their longboat is ripped apart in a storm. The British penal colony at Port Jackson is 700 kilometres to the north, their fellow-survivors from the wreck of the Sydney Cove stranded far to the south on a tiny island in Bass Strait. To rescue them and save their own lives, they have no alternative. They set out to walk to Sydney. What follows is one of Australia's greatest survival stories and cross-cultural encounters. On 11 April they pass through Wallaga Lake and head north through the areas we now know as Narooma, Moruya and Batemans Bay. The story touches us locally as well as nationally. That remarkable walk is a story of endurance but also of unexpected Aboriginal help.
In From the edge, Mark McKenna traces four stories of forgotten history and explores the central drama of Australian history: the encounter between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians – each altered irrevocably by the other, offering a new understanding of the country and its people. An evening with Mark McKenna When: Thursday 3 May 2018, 5:30pm - 7:30pm. Doors open 5.30pm for a 6pm start. Where: Batemans Bay Library, Hanging Rock Place, Batemans Bay Cost: Free
Bookings essential For more information or to book please contact Batemans Bay Library:
T: 02 4472 5850
E: Batemans Bay Library
This event is part of Going Places: Authors on Tour and has been made possible through the State Library of NSW with grant funding from the Copyright Agency to provide talks by winning authors of the NSW Premier’s Literary and History Awards in public libraries in regional areas of NSW.
