The story of James Morrill, shipwrecked and near to death after 42 days, who was washed ashore on Cape Cleveland in early 1846, is one of the most extraordinary stories in the Burdekin's history.
The story of James Morrill, shipwrecked and near to death after 42 days, who was washed ashore on Cape Cleveland in early 1846, is one of the most extraordinary stories in the Burdekin's history.
Morrill was found and tended by members of the Birri-Gubba Bindal People around Mount Elliot and he lived with them and the Birri-Gubba Juru People during the 1850s. By 1861 the Kennedy District was opened up and there was an increasing incursion by Europeans seeking pasture for their stock. After frontier killings of his adoptive kinspeople, Morrill approached some shepherds on Sheep Station Creek at Airville in January 1863, and upon being threatened with a gun, famously declared, 'Don't shoot me I am a British object – a shipwrecked sailor’.
This frontier story has now been completely captured by author John Elliott in 'mogoer munya, man from the Clouds', which will be launched at the Burdekin Theatre on Friday, 31 March at 11am.
