num_pages: 230
description: Thomas Mitchell landed in Sydney in 1827 to become Surveyor General of New South Wales. A cultured, energetic and urbane man, he worked first in the settled areas of the colony and then made four journeys of exploration, spanning fifteen years.By the 1830s the squatters were poised to extend their runs over eastern Australia and so dispossess untold thousands of Aboriginal families of their land. Mitchell witnessed at first hand some of the worst years of a monstrous and incomprehensible disaster. More than that, his work directly assisted in this destruction.In The Civilised Surveyor, D. W. A. Baker reveals that Mitchell's attitude towards the Aboriginal people he and his men encountered was ambiguous, even contradictory. Trust and admiration vied with fear, even disgust. He co-operated with them and he killed them. Sometimes conscious and regretful of his complicity, he was more often blinded by his conviction of the superiority of British civilisation. Ultimately, he shared the widespread view that Europeans could do no more than smooth the pillow of the dying race.
language: English
title: The Civilized Surveyor: Thomas Mitchell & Australian Aboriginals
titlecomplete: The Civilized Surveyor: Thomas Mitchell & Australian Aboriginals
genres: History
ratings_count: 3
publisher: Melbourne University Publishing