The novel begins with two Aboriginal men watching the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Harbour on 26 January 1788.

The novel describes the first years of the colony and the diplomacy of captain Arthur Phillip, famine and the effects of outside diseases on the previously unexposed Aboriginal population.

Watkin Tench, author of The Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, is a key character in The Timeless Land.

The book was reprinted in 2002 and the novel was on the curriculum for high school students in Australia in the mid-twentieth century.

It was written by Peter Yeldham, based on the Eleanor Dark novels, and starred Charles Yunupingu as Bennelong and English actress Nicola Pagett (star of the British series Upstairs, Downstairs) as Mrs. Mannion.