In this RNB Podcast, Michael Lester interviews Henry Reynolds, Australian of the Year (2015) and distinguished historian of settler-indigenous relations. They discuss Reynolds’ new book, Looking from the North: Australian History from the Top Down (New South Books, 2025), which reframes Australia’s colonisation as two distinct acts—1788 in the southeast under imperial sovereignty and post-1860 expansion in the north under Australian sovereignty. The conversation delves into land settlement, demographic dynamics, and the complex patterns of land ownership, including Indigenous rights to land across a continent where much of the tropical north remains a frontier of development. A thoughtful, provocative exploration of how “top-down” history reshapes national memory and policy.