Cover; Title page; Imprint page; Contents; Preface and acknowledgements; A note on the images; Map of the Gulf Country; Chapter 1: The Gulf Country; Chapter 2: Wild Time; The first explorers; The establishment of Burketown; Drinking and dying on the Australian frontier; Settlement and abandonment; The arrival of the Native Police and the impact of violence on Aboriginal people in Wild Time; Chapter 3: The Plains of Promise; The early stations; Aboriginal involvement in the pastoral industry in the early days; Chapter 4: Gulf stations in the twentieth century
Early developments in the pastoral industrySubdivisions and consolidations; From sheep to cattle; The arrival of motor vehicles; Work life on the stations; Mustering and branding; Droving; Gardening and cooking; Social life; Aboriginal involvement in the pastoral industry in the early twentieth century; Chapter 5: Early days in Burketown; Burketown in the early twentieth century; Aboriginal settlements around Burketown; The arrival of the missionaries; Burketown in decline; Back to Burketown; Chapter 6: Chinese history in the Gulf Country; The long walk; Sam Ah Bow; Willie Sou Kee
Yuen Kim HookIndigenous identity and mixed ancestry in the Gulf Country; Chapter 7: The end of an era in the pastoral industry; From Shorthorn to Brahman; From droving teams to road trains; From leg roping in mobile mustering camps to helicopters and the cradle; From call signs to satellite phones; From family-owned properties to financial assets; The end of Aboriginal employment on the stations; Chapter 8: Equal rights, mining and the campaign for native title; Land rights and contests over bush resources; Native title and the Century Mine; Chapter 9: Nijinda Durlga-My Country
The resolution of native land claimsManaging Country; Conflict and coexistence; Picture Section; Further reading about the Gulf Country; Endnotes; Index
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
