Sydney 1788-92 Eyewitness Accounts of the Making of a Nation
Their task was to create a new society from the discarded remnants of the old. They were to do this in circumstances of maximum uncertainty - on unexplored territory, on the edge of a vast ocean half a world away from home, on someone else's land. They were convicted criminals, soldiers and clerks. Some were teenagers, none were prepared for the hardships ahead. Is it any wonder they felt buried alive?
This is their story, as they told it. Through eyewitness accounts - diaries, letters, journals, paintings - the first five years of a new country are vividly recalled. It is a story of anxiety and adventure, tragedy and achievement, the beginnings of the unlikely transformation of an experiment into a new society.
