AustLit

'Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver have accomplished an impressive feat of scholarship in collecting and curating a record of settler interaction with the kangaroo from 1770 to 1900. It is not a pretty picture, though many of the fine illustrations in the volume do their best to make it so. This sort of exploration of a well-defined – if small – area of colonial Australian experience has only been possible with the expansion of the Humanities in Australian universities in the last fifty years in addition to the philanthropy of private citizens. This elegantly published book comes from the Miegunyah Press, an imprint of Melbourne University Press, which is funded by bequests from Sir Russell and Lady Grimwade. The Humanities are now threatened by the present Australian Government’s current tertiary education policies which will make such research in the Humanities extremely difficult. This book exemplifies the character of research we will sadly lose as a result.' (Publication abstract)