The colonial practice of rationing goods to Indigenous people has been neglected in the study of Australian frontiers. This book argues that much of the colonial experience in Central Australia can be understood by seeing rationing as a fundamental, though flexible, instrument of colonial government. Rationing was the material basis for a variety of colonial ventures in Central Australia: scientific, evangelical, pastoral and the post-war program of 'assimilation'.

Combining history and anthropology in a cultural study of rationing, this book develops a new narrative of the colonisation of the countries of the Arrernte, Warlpiri and Pitjantjatjara peoples. Two arguments underpin this story: that the colonists were puzzled and intrigued by the question of the motives of the Indigenous recipients; and that the colonists were highly inventive in their constructions of the meanings and moral foundations of the rationing relationship.