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The Gulf Country : the story of people and place in outback Queensland / Richard J. Martin.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Crows Nest, New South Wales : Allen & Unwin, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Description: xiii, 194 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781760631659
  • 1760631655
Subject(s): LOC classification:
  • DU270 .M37 2019
Summary: The story of the resilient people who make their home in Australia's far north, from the 'wild time' of the frontier days to the present. 'There is something about the Gulf Country that seems to become part of you.' With its great rivers, grassy plains and mangrove-fringed coastline, Queensland's remote Gulf Country is rich and fertile land. It has long been home to Aboriginal people and, since the 1860s, also to Europeans and to settlers with Chinese, Japanese and Afghan ancestry. Richard J. Martin tells the story of a century-and-a-half of exploration and colonisation, the growth of cattle and mining industries, and the impact of Christian missionaries and Indigenous activism, through to the present day. He acknowledges the brutal realities of violence and dispossession, as well as the challenges of life on the land in northern Australia. Drawing on extensive interviews with people across the Gulf Country, this is a lively and colourful account of tight-knit communities, relationships across cultures and resilience in the face of adversity.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Non-Fiction Davis (Central) Library Non-Fiction Non-Fiction 994.3 MAR Available T00812601
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The story of the resilient people who make their home in Australia's far north, from the 'wild time' of the frontier days to the present.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The story of the resilient people who make their home in Australia's far north, from the 'wild time' of the frontier days to the present. 'There is something about the Gulf Country that seems to become part of you.' With its great rivers, grassy plains and mangrove-fringed coastline, Queensland's remote Gulf Country is rich and fertile land. It has long been home to Aboriginal people and, since the 1860s, also to Europeans and to settlers with Chinese, Japanese and Afghan ancestry. Richard J. Martin tells the story of a century-and-a-half of exploration and colonisation, the growth of cattle and mining industries, and the impact of Christian missionaries and Indigenous activism, through to the present day. He acknowledges the brutal realities of violence and dispossession, as well as the challenges of life on the land in northern Australia. Drawing on extensive interviews with people across the Gulf Country, this is a lively and colourful account of tight-knit communities, relationships across cultures and resilience in the face of adversity.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Preface and acknowledgements (p. vii)
  • A note on the images (p. xiii)
  • Map of the Gulf Country (p. xiv)
  • Chapter 1 The Gulf Country (p. l)
  • Chapter 2 Wild Time (p. 11)
  • The first explorers (p. 12)
  • The establishment of Burketown (p. 15)
  • Drinking and dying on the Australian frontier (p. 17)
  • Settlement and abandonment (p. 22)
  • The arrival of the Native Police and the impact of violence on Aboriginal people in Wild Time (p. 25)
  • Chapter 3 The Plains of Promise (p. 33)
  • The early stations (p. 34)
  • Aboriginal involvement in the pastoral industry in the early days (p. 45)
  • Chapter 4 Gulf stations in the twentieth century (p. 49)
  • Early developments in the pastoral industry (p. 51)
  • Subdivisions and consolidations (p. 52)
  • From sheep to cattle (p. 55)
  • The arrival of motor vehicles (p. 58)
  • Work life on the stations (p. 60)
  • Mustering and branding (p. 61)
  • Droving (p. 63)
  • Gardening and cooking (p. 67)
  • Social life (p. 69)
  • Aboriginal involvement in the pastoral industry in the early twentieth century (p. 72)
  • Chapter 5 Early days in Burketown (p. 79)
  • Burketown in the early twentieth century (p. 80)
  • Aboriginal settlements around Burketown (p. 90)
  • The arrival of the missionaries (p. 94)
  • Burketown in decline (p. 97)
  • Back to Burketown (p. 101)
  • Chapter 6 Chinese history in the Gulf Country (p. 107)
  • The long walk (p. 110)
  • Sam Ah Bow (p. 111)
  • Willie Sou Kee (p. 112)
  • Yuen Kim Hook (p. 115)
  • Indigenous identity and mixed ancestry in the Gulf Country (p. 116)
  • Chapter 7 The end of an era in the pastoral industry (p. 121)
  • From Shorthorn to Brahman (p. 123)
  • From droving teams to road trains (p. 126)
  • From leg roping in mobile mustering camps to helicopters and the cradle (p. 128)
  • From call signs to satellite phones (p. 129)
  • From family-owned properties to financial assets (p. 131)
  • The end of Aboriginal employment on the stations (p. 135)
  • Chapter 8 Equal rights, mining and the campaign for native title (p. 139)
  • Land rights and contests over bush resources (p. 141)
  • Native title and the Century Mine (p. 143)
  • Chapter 9 Nijinda durlga-My Country (p. 159)
  • The resolution of native land claims (p. 161)
  • Managing Country (p. 166)
  • Conflict and coexistence (p. 169)
  • Further reading about the Gulf Country (p. 175)
  • Endnotes (p. 177)
  • Index (p. 191)

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