Australia's Sinister History Revealed
Murder, Mystery and Massacre — Chilling Stories from our Pioneering Past, by Queensland author Tony Matthews, is a powerful collection of stories examining all the darker elements of Australia’s colourful past.
Published by Boolarong Press, this anthology of true and sometimes quite terrifying stories allows us to glimpse into aspects of our history that have either long been forgotten or were, on occasion, hidden deliberately from public scrutiny.
It’s true that yesterday’s news is today’s history and that the events that shaped and moulded our lives were often quickly forgotten, but internationally published Queensland author Tony Matthews has now delved deeply into many of those dramatic events and elements that not only made the news of those long lost years but often emotionally shattered or outraged the nation.
There are astonishing stories of piracy, right here on Australian shores, lost gold hordes, headhunting and massacre of ships’ crews, assassination, mining disaster, disappearing French jewels, sacrificial murders, a wrecked gold-ship and even a true life ‘whodunit’ in the Queensland outback.
The good, the bad and the hauntingly evil are precariously aligned in this emotionally charged book dealing with the lives and often the tragic deaths of everyday ordinary Australians — just family people who suddenly found themselves at the centre of a vortex of highly dangerous events. The characters in this book are colourfully drawn, at times they appear almost fictional, but these were real people, and real lives, being lived under exceptional and often completely abnormal circumstances.
Published by Boolarong Press, this anthology of true and sometimes quite terrifying stories allows us to glimpse into aspects of our history that have either long been forgotten or were, on occasion, hidden deliberately from public scrutiny.
It’s true that yesterday’s news is today’s history and that the events that shaped and moulded our lives were often quickly forgotten, but internationally published Queensland author Tony Matthews has now delved deeply into many of those dramatic events and elements that not only made the news of those long lost years but often emotionally shattered or outraged the nation.
There are astonishing stories of piracy, right here on Australian shores, lost gold hordes, headhunting and massacre of ships’ crews, assassination, mining disaster, disappearing French jewels, sacrificial murders, a wrecked gold-ship and even a true life ‘whodunit’ in the Queensland outback.
The good, the bad and the hauntingly evil are precariously aligned in this emotionally charged book dealing with the lives and often the tragic deaths of everyday ordinary Australians — just family people who suddenly found themselves at the centre of a vortex of highly dangerous events. The characters in this book are colourfully drawn, at times they appear almost fictional, but these were real people, and real lives, being lived under exceptional and often completely abnormal circumstances.