A novel about Australian explorers, the colonisation of Melbourne and Victoria, and the interaction with the Aboriginal people. In 1837, two lawyers from Van Diemen's Land set off from the newly established colony at Port Phillip in search of new farming lands and never returned. While this part of the story is a mystery, it is set around real events, including the sacking of Gellibrand when he was the first ever Attorney-General of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), his involvement in the proposed private treaty with the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land where Melbourne now stands and the massacre of Aboriginal people at what is now known as Mount Cottrell, on the Werribee River.
