Introduction

This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about the Australian experience of empire. It aims to show how Australia's empire was as much the project of the colony as of the metropole, as much the product of the Australian imagination as of the British Colonial Office. This book examines Australia's own imperial inheritance. It explores the saga of British explorer Captain James Cook, the meaning and practice of the conquest of Australia and the way by which rural Australia became tied to the Empire. It also discusses the contact and accommodation between the aborigines and the colonisers and the central issue of governance and the formation of the Australian State.