Book reveals the essence of New England

December 12, 2006

New England, NSW, is celebrating the publication of a book that takes a new approach to history and heritage.

High Lean Country: Land, people and memory in New England is, according to one of its editors, “an experimental book. Nothing quite like it has been published in Australia before.”

That editor – the distinguished Australian historian Alan Atkinson – explained that High Lean Country was the first major publication of The University of New England’s Heritage Futures Research Centre (HFRC), founded in 2001. “The Centre is dedicated to showing the importance of the humanities and social sciences for the region, and for the sustainability of rural life throughout Australia,” he said.

Alan Atkinson, the author of The Europeans in Australia, is a Professorial Fellow at UNE, and his three co-editors – J.S. Ryan, Iain Davidson (the Founding Director of HFRC) and Andrew Piper – and most of the book’s 36 authors are UNE academics. Some of the authors, however, are members of the wider community. “There are chapters not only by historians, archaeologists and experts in literature, theatre, music, film and the visual arts, but also by geographers, a botanist, zoologists, and agricultural scientists,” Professor Atkinson said. “The aim is to show what is – and what’s not – distinctive about New England, what its natural and cultural assets are, how the way of life has changed, and what seems to be worth preserving. Running through most of the chapters are questions as to what it feels like to live here, and what it felt like in the past.”

The publishers, Allen & Unwin, say it is "a book that Judith Wright would have savoured". "It considers the way the land has shaped its people, their ideas about themselves, their way of life and their memories."

The Member for Northern Tablelands, Richard Torbay, will launch High Lean Country: Land, people and memory in New England in the Armidale Dumaresq Council Chambers at 12 noon on Monday 18 December. (For more information on this public event, ring Professor Alan Atkinson on 6773 2125 or Dr David Roberts on 6773 3794.)

It was one of the book’s editors, John Ryan, who had the original idea for High Lean Country. (Dr Ryan is an Associate Professor in UNE’s School of English, Communication and Theatre.) “The book is representative of John’s long and extraordinary contribution to UNE, and his concern with the way the University serves the people of New England,” Professor Atkinson said. “It builds on his strong sense of regional culture and identity, and of the world as a place made up of regions. The fact that human beings draw an enormous amount from their regional and local roots is, of course, a fundamental insight for UNE’s past and future.”

Professor Atkinson pointed out that High Lean Country was the first comprehensive book about New England since The Atlas of New England was published in 1977. “A recent survey by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economics and Social Research shows that UNE is one of Australia’s top universities in the area of the humanities,” he said. “This book is a good example of the sort of thing we do.”

Posted by Jim Scanlan at December 12, 2006 02:49 PM