Reviewed by Wendy Lipke
Many of the names given to Australian places and topography after colonisation were those of English people. Today many of these are being replaced by their Aboriginal name. So, what is the story behind the non-English name Kosciuszko given to Australia’s highest peak?
Anthony Sharwood, a Walkley award-winning journalist, has now provided the answer for us. Tadeusz Kosciuszko was Polish. He was a great social reformer, a great general of America and a beloved Polish military figure, a leading light of Polish Enlightenment thinking, a man with high morals and often referred to as a man well ahead of his time.
There are around 360 plaques, pedestals, statues, sculptures and various other reminders of him scattered throughout the world. He was a military engineer, freedom fighter and hero of the American War of Independence. Maybe it is time for Australians to discover more about this man who appears to have been an all-round good guy.
The book is set out as one would expect an academic/biography to be presented. A four- page timeline gives a brief overview of Kosciuszko’s life and accomplishments. After the introduction, the book is divided into three sections. The first covers Kosciuszko’s time in America and his impact on goings-on there. ‘Without his ingenuity, bravery and unwavering selflessness, America’s Revolutionary War would doubtless have been prolonged, perhaps even lost’ (2).
Section two addresses his time in Europe fighting for his homeland while the third section looks at the area in Australia which carries his name: its history, flora and fauna. The first paragraph in this section starts with the words ‘On the summit of Mt Kosciuszko, at the very highest point of Australia, there is a lie’ (211).
The text is written more as a personal journey of discovery in a friendly conversational style, often asking questions or stating an opinion. Sharwood refers to this book as a road trip across three continents and four countries. He coined the word ‘travelography’ for his new literary fusion genre (319).
Although Sharwood describes his travels as he gathers his information in the 2020s, he is able to smoothly flow from present to past in his writing and mention of Kosciuszko is never far away; for example, ‘but did Kosciuszko live up to his own advice?, you’d best go visit the man himself at 18’ (19) or ‘Clickety-Clack, let’s go way back’ (168). These were just a couple of the more unusual ways he does this.
As well as the author’s personal collection of information, throughout the text there is ample evidence of thorough research from other authors who have recorded information about Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
The reader learns that Tadeusz Kosciuszko has also been memorialised in the poetry of Coleridge, Keats and Leigh Hunt and that, while in America, he staged the fireworks for the first ever 4th July celebrations in 1783. He was a Renaissance man, widely read and fluent in four languages. A capable composer and painter and subject of art and literature. A worthy man to have our mountain named after.
He even found his way into the music industry. In 1984 Australian band, Midnight Oil, released its fifth studio album Red Sails in the Sunset on which the song ‘Kosciuszko’ appears without the ‘z’. In 1997 the missing ‘z’ was restored. In 2007 music composed by Kosciuszko himself is played atop the summit of our mountain by Sydney band the Windjammers.
So how did our highest mountain come to bear his name? This came about in 1840 when Polish explorer and scientist Pawel Strzelecki on reaching the top of the mountain thought of his hero. The Kosciuszko National Park came into being in 1967.
Anthony Sharwood has spent a lifetime walking, skiing and writing about Kosciuszko National Park. He now has three books in his Australian Alpine Trilogy, so he has intimate knowledge about this area. This information he shares with the reader in the third section of the book.
It is obvious that Sharwood believes Australia’s history since European settlement does not sit well with Tadeusz Kosciuszko’s philosophy, especially as it applies to the First Nations people. In recent years, Polish immigrants have reached out to the traditional owners in their aim to bring a greater awareness to both Kosciuszko, the man, and Strzelecki, the scientist, humanist, philanthropist and several other worldly types of ‘ist’ (226) who trekked to the top of the mountain.
Sharwood shares some of the many stories which connect to this area of Australia. He even manages to find a similarity which he sees between Tadeusz Kosciuszko and the racehorse Phar Lap. What else would one expect from a man who throughout the text refers to his historic figure as ‘old Koz’.
There is much for a reader to take in when reading this book. The author has disseminated the information in an interesting and often humorous way, so the experience is not overpowering. And the reader is left in no doubt, through all sections of the book, as to the author’s beliefs, regardless to which nation’s information he is sharing at the time.
This has been an interesting read covering more than just who named the mountain and who inspired its choice of name.
Kosciuszko
(2024)
by Anthony Sharwood
Hachette Australia
ISBN: 978-0-7336-5097-0
$34.99; 336pp