In the early years of the nineteenth century, a small number of European men moved from the river towns of northern Tasmania onto the small islands of Eastern Bass Strait. Taking Tasmanian Aboriginal women as their wives, the Straitsmen set up samll-island homes on what became the colonial sea frontier. There have been many interpretations of the result of this blending of two cultures. Did it spell the demise of some of the clans, or, conversely did it ensure the survival of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people? Author Patsy Cameron has made a detailed study of the writings of Boultbee, who visited Bass Strait six years before Geroge Robinson, as well as Robinson himself and Stokes in 1839, to find answers to these questions. This book is an invaluable contribution to Tasmania's historical tradition, focusing attention on the placescapes where modern tasmanian Aboriginal Culture was born.
