Brian Dillon was born in Glanmire, Cork 1830 and raised in Dillon’s Cross; suffered curvature of the spine from childhood, and overcame his disability to become a leading Centre or Colonel in the Irish Republican Brotherhood or Fenian Brotherhood and lead the revolutionary forces of Cork City from the time of the creation of the…
The Queensland Native Police force were a uniquely, local law enforcement agency on the frontier of Queensland’s white settler expansion. There was probably as much support for the force as there was against it. To some, it stood as a force for the eradication of Aborigines from the landscape of Queensland. While to others, it…
Cowboys and Indians, does that mean anything anymore? As a movie genre, it portrayed the white Anglo male as a hero, who sought to assert his authority over nature and all that inhabited it: Indians, rivers, mountains, animals, droughts, floods and gunmen. Were there any Cowboys and Indians in Australia’s colonial past? Perhaps there were…
Read more Inside the Killing Fields: Hornet Bank, Cullin-la-Ringo & The Maria Wreck
A murder thriller set in Outback, Australia. Backpackers alone in the isolated Red Centre of Australia, in the cruel Outback alone, frightened, surrounded by an impenetrable wall of silence and mystery, where random acts of violence strike at any moment, where the vastness, the isolation, anxiety, fear and febrile thoughts convulse the traveller into a…
Read more RED CENTRE, DEAD CENTRE The True Story of Peter Falconer
The manuscript of this book first saw the light of day sometime in 1971. At the time, its contents were sensational. A long lost literary treasure had been found and shed a glorious light on early Australian history as well as giving an insight into the men the British government had transported to Australia. Unlike…
The molehills of history are often swept aside and return quickly to the dust from which they were made. Sometimes they grow into monumental mountains of historical significance and everyone even the uninformed hums a tune about it. John Francis Dowling rode out on his trusty steed from the Paroo with his black pilot beside…
Read more The Murder of John Francis Dowling and the Massacre of 300 Aborigines
It is a hundred years since the commencement of the First World War, 1914-1918; given the amount of celebrations and comment about such a brutal event one wonders whether anything useful has been learnt from the tragedy. From time to time, someone expresses regret or warns of the dire consequences flowing from such devastating events…
Read more Edward Emmet Dillon, The Man who would not Fall-in!
This is the first and only compleat biography of Frederick Walker, 1820 to 1866. Mr Walker’s life was one of isolation, hardship and rejection. As Commandant of the Native Police, he was the man who stood at the front line of Australian history with his true and trusty sable force and forged the northern pastoral…
The Forgotten Boroondara Warrior is a great little book for the local history buff. It gives a blow by blow description of some of the more colourful old-timers of Boroondara when it was nothing more than Australian bush, empty paddocks where pademelon wallabies skipped the light fantastic and lorikeets swooped and screeched; where the carthorse…
GEOFFREY BLAINEY: If you read about this traffic and trade in such easily-found sources as Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica, and then turn to Paul Dillon’s latest book, you will sometimes wonder whether you are reading about the same episode in history. Dillon often sets out long documents which give readers an opportunity to learn more…
On the evening of 18 October 1884, a group of at least five Aborigines, were sitting round a camp fire boiling the billy and yarning in blackfellow talk when they were fusilladed. Tommy jumped up and ran for it; followed by the thwacks and zings of the bullets as they whizzed after him. The others…
Mr. Paul Dillon, a Sunshine Coast author of several books on Queensland history has written another straight-talking, straight-shooting book about the Wide Bay frontier during colonial times: Fraser Island Massacre Vrai ou Faux. Captain Cook called it the Great Sandy Island; the locals called it Fraser Island; now the Queensland Labor government calls it K’gari.…
Bêche-de-mer is an edible sea creature used to make soup. These primitive sea creatures are a popular food in several Asian cultures, especially Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese cuisines. During the colonial period of Queensland’s history, Aboriginals were employed to harvest the animals at low tide amongst the coral reefs of Torres Strait and the…
New Guinea is a land of magnificent, mountainous scenery and luxuriant jungles, of beautiful birds of paradise, where chewing betel nut and talkin Tok Pisin or having a sing-sing in the highlands is the thing to do. Many a white man has slashed and stumbled along the well-worn tracks of the indigenous natives in search…
I began with the idea that I would write a complete history of marine incidents in Queensland waters and adjacent islands which involved indigenous elements. When first looked at, this seemed straightforward enough. After all, everyone is now writing about Aboriginals and their connection with this or that. It’s the hip thing to do. So,…
Read more The History of Bêche-de-mer Fishing in Queensland Waters and Adjacent Islands
PACIFIC ISLAND LABOURERS IN QUEENSLAND Isa Isa vulagi casa dina Nomu lako au na rarawa kina Cava beka ko a mai cakava Oh my, Oh my, Happy visitor Your leaving will sadden me Why did you come in the first place … Nation building requires people. To advance the prosperity of the colony of Queensland,…
Dillon’s latest book investigates, with keen attention to detail, colonial Queensland’s role in the development of British New Guinea. It reveals the rising importance of Torres Strait and its international steamship traffic, the contest with Germany in 1883 for the easterly or non-Dutch portion of New Guinea and the attractive islands of New Britain and…
Read more Queensland’s Contribution to the Development of British New Guinea.
The Queensland Native Police were renowned as keepers of the peace and good order on the Queensland colonial frontier. Trackers of the highest order graced the saddles of the Native Police. In the annals of Queensland policing, few units have displayed a devotion to duty and loyalty to the cause of justice to rival the…
In the High Court of Australia, on 20 May 1982, Torres Strait Islanders Eddie Mabo, Dave Passi and James Rice sought declarations of ownership of land on Murray Islands based on their laws, customs, and traditions, notwithstanding, the annexation of the islands by Queensland in 1879. This is a ground-breaking book exposing the unconstitutional acts…
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