Just how to pronounce his name, let alone spell it, has made Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kosciuszko one of the least-known men in Australia … despite this nation’s highest mountain bearing his name.

That mountain already had several Aboriginal names, but Polish explorer Pawel Strzelecki named it in honour of the great Polish freedom fighter. There is currently a simmering debate over whether it should revert to one of its earlier names.

Sharwood, who has spent a lifetime skiing and walking in Kosciusko National Park and has written two books about that alpine area, was fascinated by Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the man.

There’s a bridge in New York, Oprah Winfrey’s hometown in Mississippi, an Alaskan island, and Australia’s own highest mountain named for this man who was not just a Polish patriot but an American citizen and honorary French citizen. He was fluent in four languages, a composer and painter, and a soldier who fought in America’s Revolutionary War.

Sharwood traces Kosciuszko’s life from 1746 to 1817. The author writes entertainingly as he takes his readers on a road trip, first to the USA, then to Poland, where Kosciuszko became a national hero for leading the 1794 uprising named for him against Russia and Prussia. Sharwood also writes of the Ngarigo people of Australia’s alpine region, their dispossession and hopes for the future.

Throughout Kosciuszko’s life, he stood for liberty, opportunity and dignity for all.

Sharwood believes that his most important research about Kosciuszko concerns the mountain, the country around it, and its traditional custodians. He also believes that ‘old Koz’ would be quite happy to have his name removed from the mountain because of his belief in human rights and dignity; and at the very least foster a civil debate on the issue.

Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anthony Sharwood is a Walkley Award-winning journalist who has worked in TV, newspapers, magazines and online news sites. Formerly a sportswriter who covered several Olympic Games, he now specialises in the environment, climate and weather.

In 2020 he released the acclaimed From Snow to Ash, a love letter to the Australian High Country written after walking the Australian Alps Walking Track and in 2021 he explored the passionate environmental and cultural battle over Australia’s wild horses in The Brumby Wars.