Farthest Coast: A Selection of Writings Relating to the History of the Northern Coast of Australia

Northern Australia was once one the most remote areas of the world. To all its early visitors—Macassan fishermen, white explorers, soldiers, government officials, settlers and missionaries—it was their farthest coast. For all it was an alien and difficult place to reach.

Campbell Macknight outlines the history of the exploration and settlement of the coast from the Gulf of Carpentaria west to the Kimberleys in his introduction. He suggest it is a geographical unit very different from the res...