This book focuses on the colonial practice of rationing goods to Aboriginal people, arguing 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: scientific, evangelical, pastoral and the postwar program of "assimilation." Combining history and anthropology in a cultural study of rationing, this book develops a new narrative of the colonization of Central Australia.