Clarke of the Kindur: Convict, bushranger, explorer

(Paperback)

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Transported convict George Clarke absconded in the early 1800s and went far into the then unexplored wilderness of northern New South Wales. There, thought by the Aborigines to be a 'ghost', he lived with them for four years integrating into their lives and later leading them on raids to steal the white men's cattle. On eventual capture he claimed to have crossed the continent and to have discovered a great inland river, the 'Kindur'-a 'desired blessing' of the colonists-which prompted Major Thomas Mitchell's expeditions into the area. This biography traces Clarke's eventful history from his transportation from England in 1824 for robbery, his escape and life with the Kamilaroi Aborigines, his ventures into bushranging, his capture and subsequent imprisonment on Norfolk Island, and death on the public gallows in Van Diemen's Land.

Author Bio

Dean Boyce is a retired journalist who was born and raised in South Australia. He has worked abroad, in Fleet Street newspapers and at the BBC, and in Sydney at The Australian, The National Times, and the Sydney Morning Herald. During his last decade working in newspapers he specialised in the then changing pre-press technology, on which he wrote a number of booklets and training manuals. While in Europe he travelled widely and spent a year in Italy, studying at the University of Perugia, and teaching English. He has always had a keen interest in Australian history (he is a graduate of Sydney University, where he majored in history and art history and theory). This book is his first, published in 1970. In recent years he has written two other books and a commissioned article for the Dictionary of Sydney. He also had a part-time formal education in art and continues this interest. (His own sketches illustrate this book.)