The History of CAIRNS has been nominated for the 2016 Queensland Literary Award.
CAIRNS, City of the South Pacific, A History 1770-1995 written by local author, Dr Tim Bottoms, has been nominated for the Premiers Award for a work of state significance.
The 600 page book has enjoyed outstanding reviews, with renowned Australian historian, Professor Henry Reynolds saying it weaves an enormous amount of detail into a compelling narrative. There is much hidden artistry in it … It is in every sense a fine local history which bears comparison with the best examples of the genre.
Weekend Australians, Nicolas Rothwell states Timothy Bottoms provides a sweeping, synoptic history of the city and its wider region, weaving together the experiences of settlers and Aboriginal peoples on the coast and in the ranges, sketching the development of agriculture, railways and harbours, the many triumphs and the counterbalancing reverses, the dreams and hopes and sorrows all that went into the creation of a new society in the wet tropics. Gold, tin, sugar cane the reinventions of the north came fast, as did the waves of incomers, Europeans and South Sea Islanders, Chinese and Japanese. Much of this past has vanished from the landscape, and from memory. For Bottoms, one of the chief tasks of the historian is to re-create the texture of lost experience, or, as his great professional exemplar Robert Darnton writes, to uncover the human condition as it was experienced by our predecessors.
The public is invited to the official launch of the hardcopy of the history of Cairns.
CAIRNS, City of the South Pacific, A History 1770-1995
official launch will be held at Botanic Gardens
Visitors Centre, Wednesday 22 June from 5.00-6.00pm.
Local historical documentaries by Dr Tim Bottoms will be screened at the launch.
For more information contact; Dr Timothy Bottoms
t: 40531065
m: 0431226235