AustLit

'My first impression of this book, by Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver, was that it is a visual delight. At a time when authors have to plead—and pay—for every image, the Miegunyah Press, funded by a legacy from Russell and Mab Grimwade, is keeping alive the art of book design and illustration. Under the hand of designer Patrick Cannon, almost 40 images—resplendent in their original colours—adorn the pages. But this beauty belies the subject matter. A close examination of the painting on the cover, J. A. Turner's The Last Leap (1873), reveals a kangaroo with a spear in its back being harried by a trio of greyhound-like dogs. This image captures the moment before death, signalling the book's theme of how the bloody business of kangaroo hunting was represented during Australia's colonial period and why it matters.' (Introduction)

'Mallee Country is a many-layered environmental history of three separate regions extending east from Perth in Western Australia to Swan Hill in Victoria. Their shared name is derived from ‘mali’, a term used by the Wemba Wemba people to describe a growth habit of some eucalypt species in their country in northwestern Victoria. In these semi-arid regions, eucalypts developed a large lignotuber, popularly known as a mallee root, from which multiple stems emerge. The scrubby growth on the surface looks like the main part of the plant, but it can be desiccated by drought, burned by fire or dragged flat by an anchor chain without lasting harm to the organism as a whole, and green shoots arise from the mallee root as soon as conditions improve. This act of mallee-ing, of demonstrating resilience through adaptation, is an underlying motif for Mallee Country.' (Introduction)