Australia on Horseback: The Story of the Horse and the Making of a Nation (Cameron Forbes, Pan Macmillan)

Cameron Forbes is an award-winning journalist and the author of Hellfire, about Australian POWs in Asia in World War II, and The Korean War, about Australia’s involvement in that conflict. Australia on Horseback is an altogether different book, although equally compassionate and well-researched. As Forbes writes in his introduction, it is not a history of the horse in Australia, but a history of aspects of early Australian life that the horse enabled, including exploration and conquest; and European settlement and development of the land. Forbes reveals little-known stories of colonial Australia, some of which make for confronting reading, where mounted Europeans ruthlessly dispossessed the original Australians. He traces how national identity was created on horseback through explorers, bushrangers and soldiers on their tough ‘Walers’ who went overseas to war. He also reminds us how Australia’s horses were once a major export to armies around the world, and even kings. While horses are not as ubiquitous as they once were, there are still many horse-lovers in Australia, and this book will appeal to them, as well as to readers of serious Australian history books such as James Boyce’s 1835 and Van Diemen’s Land, and quirkier books such as David Hunt’s Girt.

Dave Martus is the manager of Dymocks Neutral Bay in Sydney

Category: Reviews