Macquarie Island where the action of Book 2 takes place in the southwest is often very cold, very wet, and very gloomy. It was, as far as the authorities were concerned, the perfect place for a penal colony because with its rugged coastline, impenetrable bush and paucity of edible flora and fauna, escape was virtually impossible. Tasmania still has one of the great wilderness areas left on earth, and at the time that (For the Term of) His Natural Life was set in the early C19th, was a densely forested and hostile landscape except for the pasture lands where settlers were. On the contrary, it’s the perfect setting for what has come to be known as Tasmanian Gothic. Our smallest and most southerly island state is nothing like that. People overseas usually think of Australia as blue skies and sunshine, but for the purposes of this book, the hot and arid landscapes of Australia are irrelevant. As I was leading the discussion, I had to start by clearing up some assumptions about this strange land of ours downunder. It was good fun reading this Aussie Classic with a bunch of mostly American readers in the Yahoo 19th century reading group.
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