Up Came a Squatter

The Life and Times of Niel Black, 1839-1880

By: Maggie Black

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Paperback | 1 September 2016

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320 Pages

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23.2 x 15.6 x 2.8

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Niel Black, a Scot from Argyllshire, arrived in Melbourne in September intending to make his fortune. Ambitious and determined, Black became one of the most successful and energetic squatters in the Western District of Victoria - a livestock breeder and a Member of the Legislative Council. He was also a correspondent extraordinaire, and his letters to family, fellow pastoralists, colonial officials, and his chief UK business partner, Thomas Steuart Gladstone (and first cousin of the British prime minister), offer a unique insight into the time. Black's letters and journals, now held at the State Library of Victoria, are the inspiration for this revelatory book written by his great-granddaughter.

Battles with local Aboriginal people, other settlers, Commissioners of Crown Lands and bush-fires, along with droughts, family feuds, multiple trips back to Scotland to find a wife and Black's rise to gentrified excess are all vividly brought to life.

About the Author

Maggie Black is a writer whose work up to now has been about development among poor and disadvantaged peoples, including histories of Oxfam and UNICEF (OUP 1992, 1996). This has been a surprisingly useful apprenticeship for a study of her great-grandfather s pioneering life in Victoria, with its themes of exclusion of local Indigenous people, development of farming practices and building a new society.

Industry Reviews

`In this vivid, fast-moving book Niel Black comes to life';- Geoffrey Blainey

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