dawning_of-aboriginals_cvrThe Dawning among the Aborigines of Central Australia

by W.H. Willshire

ISBN 978-0-85905-602-5, (R 1880s90s, 2015), A4, 261pp, illustrated, 690 grams

$45.00* + POST


Police Constable Willshire published four books in the 1880s-1890s on Aboriginal customs and his experiences among them in South Australia and the Northern Territory. These represent much first contact descriptions in areas where no anthropologist ventured. They are a valuable record.

Willshire was defamed and marginalised due to the inevitable clashes with wild natives in which the latter came off second best, and a century long vendetta has been carried out by those looking for a windmill to attack. Publication of these very rare volumes will enable all to examine his writings in conjunction with his biography, Willshire of the Alice, published by Hesperian Press in 1992.