Caledonia Australis

‘It is not just about settlement, but about the legends of settlement, not just about history but as much about historiography. He plays a complex dialectical game with the traditions of the past 100 years, moving with them here, pushing against them there, seeking and often reaching an exciting synthesis of the new historiography and the old which has intellectual resonance and moral complexity.’ - Henry Reynolds, Age Monthly Review

‘For [the Scottish settlers] the Presbyterian religion was a view of the world, rather than a series of practices. They came to own a great part of Australia. Watson’s book makes clear that to understand them (and Australian history) you have to go back to the world of John Knox and John Calvin. All history is ultimately theological.’ - Edmund Campion, The Bulletin

‘Watson has an imaginative span, a love of place and a sympathy for his subjects akin to the best in Manning Clark’s writing. This is a melancholy book, taking as its theme the public tragedy of the extermination of a people and the private tragedy of one man.’ - Michael McKernan