Australia is the last continent to be settled by Europeans, but it also sustains a people and a culture tens of thousands of years old. For much of the past 200 years the newcomers have sought to replace the old with the new. This book tells ow they imposed themselves on the land, and describes how they brought technology, institutions and ideas to make it their own. It relates the advance from penal colony to a prosperous free nation and illustrates how, in a nation created by waves of newcomers, the search for binding traditions has long been frustrated by the feeling of rootlessness. Now, with the realisation that colonisation began with invasion, present-day Australians are - more than ever before - coming to terms with their past and recognising the need to redefine and reposition Australia in a changing world. This is the most up-to-date single-volume Australian history available.

Stuart Macintyre led an illustrious and well-travelled career before settling down as the Ernest Scott Professor of History at the University of Melbourne. He has written many successful books, including 'Winners and Losers' (1985), 'The Oxford History of Australia, Volume 4' (1986), 'A Colonial Liberalism' (1991) and 'A History for a Nation' (1994). His previous book, 'The Reds: The Communist Party of Australia from Origins to Illegality', won 'The Age' Non-Fiction Book of the Year prize in 1998. In 1999 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne.