How did early white settlers in Australia survive and prosper? This book shows convicts manhandling carts and building roads, sealing gangs doing it tough on remote islands, whaling crews harpooning their prey, timber-getters razing vast tracts of cedar forest, woolgrowers experimenting with merino sheep, shipbuilders and sailors and trailblazers and bullockies. Merchants did a roaring trade in sealskins, whale oil and timber, until there were almost no seals, whales or cedar trees left. What could they sell to the world that would not be used up so quickly? Nicholson's second book in his groundbreaking series 'Transport, Trade and Travel in Australia' describes the early days of white settlement, and the first attempts to make Australia a trading nation. Books in the series: Songlines and Stone Axes (pre-1788) Cedar, Seals and Whaling Ships (1788-1830s) Wool, Wagons and Clipper Ships (1830s-1850s) Steam, Steel and Speed (1850s-1900) A Hundred Years of Petrol Power (1900-2000)

Author Biography

John Nicholson is an award-winning author with a passion for the built and natural environment and its impact on human society and history. He originally trained as an architect and has built his own environment-friendly home in the Australian bush. He is renowned for his attractive and accurate illustration of the world around us. Many of John Nicholson's books have been shortlisted in the CBCA Book of the Year Awards. Four of them, A Home among the Gum Trees, The First Fleet, Fishing for Islands and Animal Architects, have won the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books. He has also won Excellence in Educational Publishing awards, the Wilderness Society's Environment Award and WA + NSW Premier's Literature awards.