Under the Banyan Tree

In Search of the Lost History of Australia's North Coast

Graeme Dobson

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English

Boolarong Press
27 June 2021

History; Australasian & Pacific history; Early modern history: c 1450 to c 1700

The history of Australia's north coast is a story of ancient industry and international trade with tentacles that reached as far as China. It tells of travel to the far reaches of the world where an old, mid-19th century Groote Eylandt man, spoke of chasing huge fish across cold seas and hunting furred creatures on seas hard as stone. It's a story of great, forgotten empires on Australia's doorstep and rich Sultans who claimed that Australia's north as their own long before Cook laid eyes on it. It's a story very few Australians know about. When marine biologist Graeme Dobson asked elders about the origins of a strange stone structure in the middle of a bay, off a tiny island, near the coast of Arnhem Land they replied 'Not ours', and so began a remarkable quest that became a mystery wrapped in an adventure, folded into history. His research took him to the far corners of Arnhem Land and into the Seas and Islands to its north. It led him back through time, past missionaries, colonists, huge fishing fleets, Dutch map-makers, Portuguese explorers-come-slavers, unknown settlers and miners, and pearl cultivating tribesmen until he finally found the answer in another bay off another tiny island, this time in the remote Indonesian Aru Islands. This is a mystery/adventure with a difference, plus fascinating insights into little discussed history of northern Australia.

By: Graeme Dobson
Imprint: Boolarong Press
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 230mm, Width: 150mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 483g
ISBN: 9781925877915
ISBN 10: 1925877914
Pages: 342
Publication Date: 27 June 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Born in New Zealand, Graeme Dobson came to Australia when he was 17 'for the adventure'. After 6 months he found himself in Darwin, then north again on a rusty cargo boat to Singapore and beyond. He's been a traveller ever since, but Darwin became home. Graeme graduated with a degree in Applied Science from the Northern Territory University when he was in his forties, followed by an MSc in aquaculture conducted in some of the most isolated locations on the Kimberley coast. He went on to establish a business developing aquaculture in remote Indigenous communities which won him two Prime Minister's Awards. Graeme was also awarded a Churchill Fellowship to further his studies in Europe, a prestigious Federal Fisheries Scholarship and contracts to develop village based aquaculture in Eastern Indonesia. In 2015 he was awarded a PhD from the Australian National University for his studies in the historic ties between North Australia and the islands of Eastern Indonesia. He and his wife, Barbara, are now building a house on a hill overlooking Gympie.