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 book, James Boyce shows how the convicts 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.

Praise

"A brilliant book and a must-read for anyone interested in how land shapes people."—Tim Flannery

"The most significant colonial history since The Fatal Shore. In re-imagining Australia's past, it invents a new future."—Richard Flanagan

"Like the best history, Van Diemen's Land is not an art-fully constructed narrative with the (inevitably inadequate) evidence banished to endnotes, but a dialogue between historian and reader as they explore the fragile sources, and the silences, together." —Inga Clendinnen

"The publication of Van Diemen's Land signals an entirely fresh approach to Australian history-writing ... This is a brilliant publication." —Alan Atkinson

"A fresh and sparkling account." —Henry Reynolds

Awards:

• Winner - 2009 Tasmania Book Prize
• Winner - 2008 Colin Roderick Award and recipient of H.T. Priestley Memorial Medal
• Shortlisted - 2009 Prime Minister's Literary Award
• Shortlisted - Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction, 2009 NSW Premier's Literary Awards
• Shortlisted – Non-Fiction Award, 2010 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature
• Shortlisted – Non-Fiction Award, 2008 Age Book of the Year Awards
• Shortlisted - Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction, 2008 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards
• Shortlisted - The Prize for a First Book of History, 2008 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards
• Shortlisted - History Book Award, 2008 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards
• Shortlisted - Australian History Prize, 2008 NSW Premier's History Awards
• Shortlisted - Newcomer of the Year in the 2008 Australian Book Industry Awards