Surveying the Wild Abyss

Publisher's description:
A unique record of the Hawkesbury's Frontier War and a powerful contemplation on memory and atonement.

In this groundbreaking history of colonisation and frontier conflict in the Hawkesbury region, historian Barry Corr navigates the gaps and silences in the primary records to reveal settler amnesia, the cataclysmic nature of colonisation and the way history is remembered, or not remembered. Driven by primary source analysis of colonial records, the book is deeply informed by Corr's perspectives and community connections as an Aboriginal person who has lived most of his life in the Blue Mountains and north-western Sydney.

Surveying the Wild Abyss reinvents the way Australian history is written and asks non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians to reflect on their history and consider what the future might look like.

Author: Barry Corr

Publisher: NewSouth

Format: Papreback

Pages: 448

Published: 1 July 2026

ISBN: 9781761170423