The Squatter's Dream (1875) is a novel by Rolf Boldrewood, the
pseudonym of Australian novelist Thomas Browne. A squatter himself for
nearly twenty-five years, he came to know the ways of life on the
outskirts of civilization, which allowed him to lead a peaceful,
uncomplicated, and inexpensive existence. Originally serialized in
Australian weekly magazines, Browne's work as Rolf Bolfrewood is an
incomparable record of colonial Australia, where outlaws and speculators
lived side by side on land stolen from the continent's Aboriginal
peoples. "The climate in which his abode was situated was temperate,
from latitude and proximity to the coast. It was cold in the winter, but
many a ton of she-oak and box had burned away in the great stone
chimney, before which Jack used to toast himself in the cold nights,
after a long day's riding after cattle." Jack Redgrave leads the kind of
existence most men would dream of: a comfortable home, plenty of food, a
beautiful property, and enough books to keep him curious about the world
beyond the wilderness. Despite this, he begins to grow dissatisfied,
dreaming of ways to increase his wealth and forgetting the reasons that
first drew him to the squatting lifestyle. With a beautifully designed
cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Rolf
Boldrewood's The Squatter's Dream is a classic work of Australian
literature reimagined for modern readers.
