Sort of a Place Like Home

Set amongst the low scrub of the Mogumber sand plain north of Perth, the Moore River Native Settlement was, for thirty years, ‘sort of a place like home’ for thousands of Aboriginal people. Alternately sanctuary, work camp, orphanage, prison and rural idyll, the settlement was part of a bold social experiment by the Chief Protector of Aborigines A. O. Neville, the aim of which was nothing less than the total eradication of a race and a culture. Making extensive and imaginative use of oral resources and hitherto unseen documents, Susan Maushart paints a vivid and intimate picture of the life experience of Moore River inmates. She documents the appalling bureaucratic incompetence, official indifference and occasional outright brutality that made Moore River notorious.

Awards

Adelaide Festival Non-fiction Award (Winner 1994)
Western Australian Premier’s Book Award (Shortlisted 1994)

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