The Land of Ulitarra: Early Records of the Aborigines of the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales Together with various Vocabularies, etc.

Abstract

This book, originally issued in briefer form in 1964, has enjoyed much reader popularity and has had several reprintings, despite its scholarly focus and considerable linguistic content. It was prepared at a time when there were no secondary or tertiary Aboriginal educational courses taught between Sydney and Brisbane, and it endeavoured both to assist the field work of the University of New England, and to reinforce Aboriginal self-respect, as well as assist the work of the regional historical societies of the area. Since the rewriting and integration of more recently available research into the text were largely completed, the writer has discovered that 'The Bawden Lectures' of 1886, subtitled 'The First Years of Settlement on the Clarence' had been reissued (third edition, 1979), together with a separate slim (undated) volume by Mr. R.C. Law, 'Index to the Bawden Lectures'. No apology is made for the use of the older bound editions of these Lectures in their Clarence River Historical Society Library format. In both cases, their narrower focus was largely on settlers and on their taking up of Aboriginal lands, rather than on the Aborigines themselves. The 1964 edition of 'The Land of Ulitarra' included somewhat more of these settler-biased accounts than is the case now.