A Million Wild Acres

Publisher's synopsis

Thirty years ago, a bomb landed in the field of Australian consciousness of itself and its land in the form of Eric Rolls’ A Million Wild Acres. The ensuing explosion has caused extensive and heated debate ever since amongst historians, ecologists, environmentalists, poets and writers. Now reissued in a commemorative 30th Anniversary Edition for a new generation of readers and against the backdrop of renewed and urgent concern about climate change, it includes Tom Griffiths’ seminal essay, The Writing of A Million Wild Acres, and a foreword by Les Murray drawn from his work Eric Rolls and the Golden Disobedience. Here is a contentious story of men and their passion for land; of occupation and settlement; of destruction and growth. By following the tracks of these pioneers who crossed the Blue Mountains into northern New South Wales, Eric Rolls – poet, farmer and self-taught naturalist – has written the history of European settlement in Australia. He evokes the ruthlessness and determination of the first settlers who worked the land – a land they knew little about.

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Eric Rolls

Eric Rolls (1923–2007) began his public career at the age of five telling stories before an adult audience. His first published poem, written when he was fifteen, was followed by twenty books and many hundreds of articles and essays on diverse topics. A vigorous and vital man, he farmed his own land for more than forty years, saying “It is an excellent background for a writer: it gives solid support yet maintains a sense of vulnerability; it produces marvels and disasters; it promises and retracts. It keeps life in balance and preserves a proper sense of the ridiculous, essential in a writer”. He was a Member of the Order of Australia for services to literature and environmental awareness, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and an Australian Creative Fellow.

Further Details

Author Eric Rolls

Publisher GHR Press

Date of Publication 1981

ISBN 9780868064642

Category Narrative History