A SHIPWRECKED SAILOR AND A BEACHCOMBER ON SHOW

Treasures  from Townsville  University  Library  Special  Collections ,  # 1

Currently on  display in a  showcase  are  items connected to  James Morrill (1824-1865), a  sailor who lived with Aborigines  for 17 years after being shipwrecked  near Townsville   in  1846  , and   the  journalist  beachcomber of  Dunk  Island , Edmund  James  Banfield  (1852-1923 ).   

Published  Brisbane  1863 , Morrill's account .

 

Covered in green suede, with decorated brass edgings, the above  l857  Book of Common Prayer,  the initials IHS on the cover ,  presented in 1865  to  Morrill's  only son , James  Ross Morrill,  by his godparents , Robert E. and Mary Pym, of Bowen , Queensland , where  Captain Pym  was  the Harbour Master .    

James Morrill was  22 when he was shipwrecked  at  Cape Cleveland   and rescued  by  a  clan  of  Birra-Gubba  speaking  people .

The Beachcomber of  Dunk  Island

 Cover  above of   1866 book  presented to  journalist and author Edmund James  Banfield  by his mother.  Banfield's father owned the Ararat, Victoria, newspaper  , where  Edmund received  early training . In 1881 he went to  North Queensland, worked on the Townsville  Bulletin , moved to  the  then  uninhabited  Dunk Island   with his wife , where   he  wrote  The Confessions of a  Beachcomber , published  1908,  regarded  as  an Australian classic . His grave on Dunk  is  on  the Queensland  Heritage Register .



The  rare  items  in  the  display   were  donated  to   Special Collections  by  former  Townsville  antiquarian   bookdealers , Paul  and  June Tonnoir .