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Macquarie

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Macquarie

By: Grantlee Kieza
Narrated by: Peter Byrne
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About this listen

Lachlan Macquarie is credited with shaping Australia's destiny, transforming a harsh, foreboding penal colony into an agricultural powerhouse and ultimately a prosperous society.

He also helped shape Australia's national character. An egalitarian at heart, Macquarie saw boundless potential in Britain's refuse, and under his rule many former convicts went on to become successful administrators, land owners and businesspeople.

However, the governor's ambitions for the colony brought him into conflict with the continent's original landowners, and he was responsible for the deaths of Aboriginal men, women and children brutally killed in a military operation intended to create terror among local Indigenous people.

So was Macquarie the man who sowed the seeds of a new nation or a tyrant who destroyed Aboriginal resistance?

In this, the most comprehensive biography yet of this fascinating colonial governor, acclaimed biographer Grantlee Kieza draws on Macquarie's rich and detailed journals. Ultimately, Macquarie laid the foundations for a new nation, but, in the process, he played a part in the dispossession of the continent's first nations.

Lover, fighter, egalitarian, autocrat, Lachlan Macquarie is a complex and engaging character who first envisaged the nation we call Australia.

©2019 Grantlee Kieza (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing Australia, New Zealand & Oceania Military & War Oceania Politicians Politics & Activism Military Heartfelt War Imperialism United Kingdom British Empire
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I found Grantlee Kieza's Macquarie extremely interesting and well-told. Macquarie is a famous name to me, but I knew nothing at all about his career before he arrived in Australia, nor of his growing up on a rocky island in the Hebrides, and all this was well worth hearing. The conflicts he had to deal with in Sydney almost made me weep - at such an early stage of the development of NSW, it is a great shame that so many people such as Marsden fought Macquarie every inch of the way. Many of his ideas were remarkably enlightened for the time, and he saw that NSW would not make progress unless many of the convicts were given tickets-of-leave to become part of the building process. I was not entirely happy with reader Peter Byrne, who has a strange habit of pausing before key words - not only when he is introducing quotes. But generally he is pretty good in making the story easy to follow. Grantlee Kieza is to be congratulated for his careful research and good narrative.

Fine portrait of a remarkable man

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Brilliantly written. Brilliantly narrated.
Brilliantly describes the foundations of a nation and national character. Just Brilliant!!!

Brilliant!

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I thoroughly enjoyed the book and didn't want his story to end. I had no idea how influential Macquarie was in Australias foundation, it is amazing to think how different Australia may have turned out if he had never taken charge in those early years. He had such an amazing life and was a man before his time, with his adventures in Australia only a small part of it. The book also covers his life before Australia and that in itself was fascinating, as Macquarie lived a life of military service and saw considerable action around the globe.
The narration suited the book perfectly and I felt like I was there with Macquarie (feeling his many struggles and frustrations with him along the way).
I just can't recommend the book more highly and if you got this far through my review I think you know what to do!

Wow what a life and what a story!

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This detailed account of the life and action of the “father of Australia”. Well written and particularly well spoken. Peter’s tone and voice make the words sink in. Great book!!

A must read (or listen) for every proud Australian

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The performance was excellent. I felt like I was listening to Macquarie himself. This book has piqued my interest in learning about our history in much more detail.

A window on our past.

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Brilliant biography, brilliant narration, brilliant Macquarie. One of the most enjoyable books I have listened to written about the best Governor of Australia. Great Australian history.

What a Man

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I knew of Lachlan Macquarie, but did not realise how vast his contribution to Australia was, or indeed the many things he achieved &/or endured…

Excellent

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Another fine biography by Grantlee Kieza with his trademark scrupulous research, facility with words and the skill to spin a good yarn with, in this case, a pronounced Australian flavour. I can’t go past the Publisher’s summary of the book as far as it goes, but it is misleading in that there is no mention of the fact that Macquarie was almost 50 years old when he arrived in Australia and much of the book deals with Macquarie’s early years in Scotland and in military service mainly in the West Indies and India. It is often a difficult read, dealing as it does with wars and invasions to dispossess people of their land and wealth, brutal floggings, executions, and hideous racism. Macquarie’s personal life is a poignant theme throughout and a humane contrast to the horrors which are a constant background.

This book is marketed to an Australian readership which is logical as Macquarie is a prominent figure in Australia’s post-colonial history, and as evidenced by the publicity emphasising Macquarie’s role in Australia and the choice of Peter Byrne as narrator. Byrne narrates with a marked Aussie accent which is inappropriate given that nobody spoke like that in the 19th century and not all Australians speak like that two centuries later. Perhaps a Scots brogue emulating Macquarie's would have been a better choice.

Another winner from Grantlee Kieza

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Without a doubt Australia would not be what it is today without the visionary of this man. A great insight to his efforts and his life.

A great read about a great man.

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Very good detailed history of his life and the development of Australia as a nation. Clear explanations, good reading and maintained interest throughout

Awesome Australian history

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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.