Hi Steele, does this not get to you? Its like trying to play a football match with our side on the field, and the other mob locked in the dressing sheds, because they forgot to bring their footy gear with them. You and I are the only two here who have actually read the book. Poor old Issy, is in knots, firstly saying not to have read the book, then it was some nonsense that he found it worthless by looking in the index. Now he appears to claim he read part of the book I thought well if a library got in for me, I would at least take it home, and if I didn't want to read it, well I would return it unread, cost nothing. I'll give it to you Issy, when you get a book you like to draw dark glasses and beards etc on the characters in the book, like in your Noddy and Big Ears book, 'Dark Emu', is in fact and easy short book to read.

A PORKY AWARD First Class is award to Is Mise for outstanding back flipping and nonsense peddling.

Hi Paul,

So ....... neither Sturt nor Mitchell et al. mention farming ? None of the early observers claim that Aboriginal groups lived in agglomerations reaching a thousand people ?

And there is no real sign of any Aboriginal farming anywhere in Australia now ? No tools, no legends, none of the usual planting and harvesting rituals like everywhere else ? Perhaps Pascoe needs to write another book claiming these developments. I would recommend Engels' 'Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State' for a start to his reading.

Strange. In all early farming societies, in the Middle East or China or Mexico, there were conurbations with far more people than a thousand. When Cortez got to Mexico, the Aztecs' main city held more people than almost any city in Europe. Major farming societies develop, in time, into empires, with a huge range of products being exchanged (including slaves from conquered areas) in large towns and sometimes very big cities. In Africa, the city of Ibadan was larger than any European city when it was first 'discovered' by Europeans, with perhaps a couple of million people. Now that's a 'town'.

In 120,000 years, there would have been phenomenal development, and across the Continent, if there ever had been any farming over that time. Unless of course, Pascoe is claiming that the 500 language groups maintained their separate independence over that time. Really ? This gets more and more fanciful. But if you think there is some mileage in pushing this, Paul, keep going for it.

Cheers,

Joe

"These are not “hotly contested conjectures” except by more or less a few far right morons with agendas"

Yep, Steely, anybody who doesn't believe these conjecture's with their whole heart must be a moronic far-rightard.

I read it 3 years ago after a work colleague gave it to me, and we discussed it. At the time I was taken by its claims and immediately understood its relevance to the treaty/sovereignty question.

I object to it being taught in schools (and so soon after its publication) as uncontested truth, even if the same happened in the past to expunge memory of massacres. I think the writer's bona fides are relevant too, and believe you should consider that question as important. I guess all this makes me a moron.

SR, you claim that there is no mention of towns of 1000 people in the book, yet when I read a review of the book, amongst the long list of “ evidence” that aboriginal people were farmers, I found this

* TOWNS on the DARLING RIVER: On the Darling River, explorers saw similar towns to those seen by Sturt and Mitchell and estimated the population of each to be no less than a thousand. Peter Dargin estimated the population of the region as 3,000 but the journals of Sturt, Mitchell and others reveal that they passed many such populous villages.

Many people who have reviewed the book have made the same claims, so, though I cannot afford to buy this book just to answer your queries, I can presumably count on the reviewers to be honest.

Andrew Bolt is probably saying that he is not Aboriginal because he probably thinks Pascoe is Chinese. You have to keep in mind that Andrew Bolt is a very smart man. He went to Sydney Uni for six months, you know.

Mr Opinion, no, if you do your research you will find that Andrew Bolt is simply quoting the aboriginal tribes Pascoe claims to belong to. Tribes who deny he is aboriginal. Or don’t you think aboriginal leaders would know who belongs to their tribe?