Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features Jock Serong discussing his latest novel Preservation.

Preservation explores the true story of the wreck of the merchant vessel Sydney Cove in Bass Strait in 1797. From the wreck 17 men make it to the mainland at ninety mile beach in Victoria and must walk over seven hundred kilometres to the incipient settlement at Port Jackson. Only three men survived this journey; a tale that survives to us recorded in the journal of the Scottish merchant William Clark.

Into this space Jock Serong delivers a story of survival and treachery that examines the principles on which the colony of New South Wales was founded and the impact invading attitudes had on the land’s indigenous population.