Robert Philps, later a Minister for Mines and a Queensland Premier, called it "the biggest ever mining swindle in the Colonies". He for one certainly knew, because Robert Ross himself sold Philps a swag of the Company shares in early 1888. This is the true story of multiple gold frauds by Robert Ross near Yeppoon Queensland, and a dubious Sydney Company involving many leading identities now well known in our history. Some made fortunes almost overnight and some ended up mortally wounded. The Supreme Court sessions featured most of the leading 'silks' in the Colony and even our later first Prime Minister Edmund Barton and all the sworn evidence and verdicts were meticulously recorded and then first sealed under Statute for 30 years.

Presents the story of how Latin American civilization emerged from the encounter of three great civilizations in the sixteenth century.

This volume contains a small selection of my favorite writings relating to the gold rush period in Queensland. I hope to provide the reader with a glimpse of the everyday topics and events that were of interest to the pioneer miners in the north of Australia. By largely avoiding sterile historical accounts in favor of primary texts in which personal opinions and first person observations are unselfconsciously expressed I endeavor to provide a sense of the social complexities of this era. The 'common sense' of this period is not our common sense. Many of the sentiments and prejudices expressed are jarring to a modern sensibility. Racist attitudes are unambiguously expressed. Empire is a stolid reality. Women are inferior to men. The 'great chain of being' provides an all-encompassing teleology by which all things under heaven might be ordered. Please enjoy a journey to the strangest land of them all - the past. James Moylan Researcher & Author