The Front Door: Darwin, 1869-1969 by Douglas Lockwood

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Dust jacket is in good condition with scuffing and minor tears to edges. has creasing at edges and at spine. Interior and binding are still very good.

Violent action was the keynote of Darwin's early days. Most people went there to hack a hurried fortune from a 'savage' land. A very few succeeded, and the remnants either drifted away or stayed on to establish one of Australia's most colourful communities. It became a rough world of gold miners, explorers, cattlemen, buffalo hunters, pearlers, seafarers, workers on great projects such as the Overland Telegraph, and public servants. Cyclones whirled and opium was an important source of government revenue.

Every chapter of the Darwin story has its full content of drama and human interest, spiced with ironic humour and shadowed by such tragedies as shipwrecks, massacres, and the Japanese air raids.

Douglas Lockwood covers every aspect, from the roistering days of the past to the vigorous progress to the beginning of the 1970s. The result is a lively addition to the author's list of books. (book flap)