Volume 2 covers colonisation from 1824, when the European pastoral teams first arrived, until 1861, the eve of Robertson’s major land reforms.

For the local Aboriginal bands, this was an invasion. For the British it was about pastureland to feed the rapidly expanding colony. Most notably, the 1838-42 period is a critical juncture, when the colony switched from a convict model to free immigration. It was also a time of debilitating drought and economic ruin for many pastoralists. The overlanding phenomenon also emerges. 

McDonald looks at the power of dominant family blocs, monopolising the agricultural economy, the uneasy imposition of European law on the ‘frontier’, the gold rush of the 1850s, and the ever-increasing pressure for land reform. Along the way, he drills down into the lives of ordinary people. He reveals some of the more elusive topics: the stories of women, children, LGBQTI+ individuals, the working poor, and the earliest ethnic households and enclaves. He also looks at the beginnings of assimilation on the Molonglo and its devastating impact. 

Along the way, McDonald also debunks a number of persistent myths. For example, the true nature of James Ainslie, a larger-than-life figure from Canberra’s pastoral core, is confronted. He brings Canberra’s female bushranger, Mrs Winter, out of the shadows. And Canberra’s Anglican foundation myth is challenged, along with the district’s bitter history of sectarianism.