Jackson's Track cover art

Jackson's Track

Memoir of a Dreamtime Place

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Jackson's Track

By: Daryl Tonkin, Carolyn Landon
Narrated by: Peter Hosking
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Summary

In 1936, Daryl Tonkin and his brother, Harry, leave home in search of adventure. They find themselves in West Gippsland, Victoria, and set up a timber mill at Jackson's Track - a dreamtime place, a place that was paradise. A bushman dedicated to his work, Daryl discovers happiness there - and unexpectedly falls in love.

But Daryl is white and Euphie is black, and neither of them is prepared for the conflict their forbidden love ignites. This spellbinding memoir recaptures a community and a way of life now vanished from sight.

©1999 Carolyn Landon and Daryl Tonkin. (P)2004 Bolinda Publishing Cultural & Regional Indigenous Studies Professionals & Academics Social Sciences Social Scientists & Psychologists Specific Demographics

Critic Reviews

"A classic of its genre." (The Sydney Morning Herald)
All stars
Most relevant
This needs to be read and taught as part of literature & life in every Australian high schools and university
This could also be studied by forestry management & Human Resources to help assimilate the Aboriginal way of life with the working man for better management of our panda and bush

AMAZING BOOK

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I really enjoyed this book. It was a beautiful mixture of story telling, indigenous information and history. I highly recommend it and plan to buy it for family and friends.

unexpected Joy

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There was truly nothing to dislike in this amazing telling of a interesting man's life.

How simple life could be with the right outlook. This is a very interesting book about country Victoria in the last century.

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Jackson’s Track: Memoir of a Dreamtime Place by Daryl Tonkin and Carolyn Landon is a moving and important account of a remarkable community in West Gippsland, Victoria, near Jindivick and Drouin. Based on Tonkin’s own experiences, the book tells the story of how he and his brother established a timber mill in the 1930s, and how an Aboriginal community grew around the property, where families could work, raise their children, maintain cultural connections and live close to the land. At its heart is Daryl’s relationship with Euphemia (Euphie), an Aboriginal woman, and the discrimination they faced because of their interracial relationship.

What I found particularly powerful was the way this book captures a community that, despite the hardships of bush life, had developed its own sense of belonging, independence and connection to country. It also preserves a forestry legacy and a way of life that would ultimately be lost.

The impact of the Aboriginal Protection Board and assimilation policies is heartbreaking. A community that had existed for decades was forced to leave Jackson’s Track, with families relocated to Drouin and their homes destroyed. People who had lived off the land, drawing on generations of knowledge and cultural traditions, were pushed towards town life and greater dependence on a society that had long discriminated against them.

The prejudice faced by Daryl and Euphie is another deeply affecting aspect of the story. Their relationship challenges the racial attitudes of the time and shows how discrimination reached into people's private lives, threatening relationships, families and the simple right to choose whom to love.

I loved this book for its humanity, its connection to the Australian bush, and the importance of the history it preserves. It is both a celebration of a unique community and a sobering reminder of how government policy, social prejudice and misguided ideas of progress can destroy something beautiful. Jackson’s Track deserves to be remembered, and this book helps ensure that the people who lived there, their culture and their story are not forgotten.

A must read for Victorian/West Gippsland inhabitants

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This was a great story, captivating from start to end - a great tale if a bushman, his way of life, the characters that weave in and out of his life, and an important story of aboriginal Australians and their experiences in this time and place.

A great Australian story of the bush

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.