Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-237) and index
Introduction: Contemplating the role of mistakes in Australia's past / Martin Crotty and David Andrew Roberts -- Indigenous peoples. 'They would speedily abandon the country to the new comers' : the denial of aboriginal rights / David Andrew Roberts -- Shelley's mistake : the Parramatta Native Institute and the stolen generations / Peter Read -- The Australian environment. The Burke and Wills phenomenon : trial and error in the conquest of Australia / Alan Atkinson -- Agrarian ideals and pastoral realities : the use and misuse of land in rural Australia / Richard Waterhouse -- A curse upon the land : foxes and cane toads / Manda Page and Greg Baxter -- 'An architectural monstrosity'? : the Cahill Expressway and town planning / Paul Ashton -- War. Naive militarism : Australia's World War I generation / Martin Crotty -- A great and impotent friend : the Singapore strategy / David Day -- The enemy within : wartime internment of enemy aliens / Ilma O'Brien -- Politics and trade. 'Another Singapore'? : Australia turns away from Asia / Marion Diamond -- States of mind : federation and the problematic constitution / Clive Moore -- Guarding the flood gates : the removal of non-Europeans, 1945-49 / Klaus Neumann -- (Mis)adventures in brinkmanship : Whitlam and the Governor-General / Wayne Reynolds