Surveying the Wild Abyss

Name: Surveying the Wild Abyss
Price: 44.99 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781761170423

Unravelling Settler Memory

Barry Corr

$44.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

NewSouth Publishing
01 July 2026

Historiography; Colonialism & imperialism

In this groundbreaking history of colonisation and frontier conflict in the Hawkesbury region, First Nations historian Barry Corr navigates the gaps and silences in the primary records to reveal settler amnesia, the cataclysmic nature of colonisation, and the way history is remembered, or not remembered. Surveying the Wild Abyss is driven by primary source analysis of colonial records and deeply informed by Corr's perspectives and community connections as an Aboriginal person who has lived most of his life in the Western Sydney Aboriginal community, the book asks non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians to reflect on their history, and reinvents the way Australian history is written.

'From personal story to history to critical philosophy, Barry Corr takes the Hawkesbury Frontier War to ""cosmic"" dimensions. Take this beautiful book with you and sit and contemplate everything that flows with the Dhurabang river ...'

Stephen Muecke

By: Barry Corr
Imprint: NewSouth Publishing
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm,
ISBN: 9781761170423
ISBN 10: 1761170422
Pages: 464
Publication Date: 01 July 2026
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Barry Corr is an Aboriginal man who has lived most of his life near Dhurabang, the river that settler society calls the Hawkesbury and the Nepean. As a university student, he was a member of Student Action for Aborigines and took part in the 1965 bus trip, which has been memorialised as the Freedom Ride, including follow-up trips to Walgett and Bowraville in 196566. He worked as a teacher and as an Aboriginal Education Consultant at a regional and state level. Living in the Hawkesbury, he is well-equipped to write on the Hawkesbury's Frontier War.