This booklet is currently in draft: It will eventually form part of Version 1.0 of The North.
In the beginning, the intention was to write something About The North. I've ended up writing rather a lot.
The content here doesn't always relate directly to the part of Australia where I live, but it's part of a story that does, and stories come with starting points.
In some cases, the starting point goes back a long way, and others begin in the not-too-distant past.
It all depends on where an author wants the narrative(s) to begin.
In Origins, Indigenes and Antecedents, the respective points of entry are The Big Bang, climatic and geological changes in East Africa and different historical eras.
Mapping The North comes in four sections:
Prelude: Towards an Outline outlines European notions of what lay on the other side of the Equator. It then moves through what happened when European travellers ventured across the line.
Six Voyages delivers an outline of North Queensland's coastline.
Adding Detail tracks through an assortment of travellers between the arrival of the First Fleet and Queensland's separation from New South Wales.
North Queensland begins with a cash-strapped Queensland government and the beginnings of European settlement in The North. From there, it moves through the rest of the nineteenth century, into the twentieth and beyond.