Warrior A Legendary Leader's Dramatic Life and Violent Death on the Colonial Frontier

Dundalli was one of the great Aboriginal warriors of the frontier, and his name is warmly remembered in the Aboriginal community of Brisbane, where he was publicly executed for murder in January, 1855. Libby Connors has reconstructed his life story from both the Aboriginal and European perspectives of the time, resulting in a fresh and powerful insight into the early days of white settlement in Brisbane and south eastern Queensland. She shows how attempts at accommodation with early pastoralists and missionaries went terribly wrong, and the negotiations between the powerful local clans that resulted in murderous reprisals by the original landowners, sparking in turn ferocious responses from fearful Europeans. Despite leading several of the most spectacular attacks on pastoralists and missionaries, Dundalli managed to escape capture again and again. The story of his arrest, trial, and execution are dramatic end to the life of a man who always upheld traditional Aboriginal law.

Libby Connors is a senior lecturer in history at the University of Southern Queensland. She is author of Australia's Frontline and co-author of A History of the Australian Environment Movement.