Frontier Justice A History of the Gulf Country to 1900

by Roberts, Tony

• ISBN13: 9780702233616
• ISBN10: 0702233617
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-02-01
• Publisher: University of Queensland Press

Summary

"Frontier Justice is a very powerful and important book. It appears at a particularly significant time given the intense current debate about Aboriginal history. It is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the story of the Australian frontier."Professor Henry ReynoldsA challenging and illuminating history, Frontier Justice brings a fresh perspective to the Northern Territory's remarkable frontier era. For the newcomer, the Gulf countryfrom the Queensland border to the overland telegraph line, and from the Barkly Tableland to the Roper Riverwas a harsh and in places impassable wilderness. To explorers like Leichhardt, it promised discovery, and to bold adventurers like the overlanders and pastoralists, a new start. For prospectors in their hundreds, it was a gateway to the riches of the Kimberley goldfields. To the 2,500 Aboriginal inhabitants, it was their physical and spiritual home. From the 1870s, with the opening of the Coast Track, cattlemen eager to lay claim to vast tracts of station land brought cattle in massive numbers and destruction to precious lagoons and fragile terrain. Black and white conflict escalated into unfettered violence and retaliation that would extend into the next century, displacing, and in some areas destroying, the original inhabitants.The vivid characters who people this meticulously researched and compelling history are indelibly etched from diaries and letters, archival records and eyewitness accounts. Included are maps with original place names, and previously unpublished photographs and illustrations."A commanding study of race relations in the remote Gulf country. Tony Roberts uncovers compelling evidence of a litany of violence across some forty-odd years of rough borderlands dispossession in an encompassing, powerful and disturbing history." Professor Raymond Evans

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xvii
1 Pioneers of the Coast Track	1	(23)
2 In the Steps of the Pioneers	24	(19)
3 A Most Dangerous Place	43	(25)
4 Birth and Decline of Borroloola	68	(24)
5 The Pastoral Frontier	92	(19)
6 Lifting the Veil	111	(32)
7 Roper Country	143	(25)
8 McArthur River Station	168	(21)
9 The Gulf Coast	189	(17)
10 The Barkly	206	(24)
11 Border Country	230	(33)
Appendix: European Deaths from Misadventure	263	(2)
Notes	265	(30)
Bibliography	295	(10)
Index	305