histories are Clare G. Coleman’s Terra Nullius (2017)
and Terry Pratchett’s The Last Continent (1998).
Both are atypical engagements with Australian
history that examine influences on Australian cultural
behaviour and evolution through re-imagined
interactions with the nation’s history, environment
and mythologies. Janice Liedl (2015) asserts that
when a history is presented speculatively, “the
differences it presents can be strong enough to
suggestively reshape the audience’s understanding
of the past” (p. 289). She suggests that the
very nature of science-fiction adds a “what if?”
component to storytelling that forces the reader
to rethink what is already known and to wonder
if, indeed, there are other ways to view the past.
Building on this assertion, it can be seen through
engagement with these texts that the alien setting of
speculative fiction makes it possible for the student
of history to engage with historical thought in a new
way, extramural to the usual and culturally defined
notions of that histor