The Lieutenant - Kate Grenville

It is impossible to read The Lieutenant without thinking of Grenville's earlier, brilliant retelling of the European settlement of Sydney, The Secret River. They share a concern with early relationships with the Cadigal people and the tragic inevitability of the slaughter of the local population. This iteration is a lightly fictionalised version of the story of English astronomer William Dawes, who sounds like a real hero.

Read The Secret River first, but this is a praiseworthy younger sister to that masterpiece.