An All Consuming Passion

This epic story of settlement and colonization is, specifically, the story of the settlement of the southeast of Western Australia. At its heart is the story of Georgiana Molloy and the Bussells, pioneer settlers of Western Australia. The book uses Georgiana's life-story to tease out and weave together a number of big themes: the conquest of nature, war, religion, beginnings (in Aboriginal myth, scientific theory and settler society), and landscape history (as explored in Carter's "The Road to Botany Bay"). At the centre of this vast canvas linking the settlement of the Swan River colony to the economic and scientific forces at work in Europe, is the story of the life of one pioneer - Georgiana Molloy. William J. Lines is the author of "Taming the Great South Land".