Has one of Australia’s most celebrated books on the frontier been built on spin rather than evidence?
David Marr’s Killing For Country captivated readers with its story of family guilt, frontier violence, and the Queensland Native Police. It was hailed as courageous history. But does the archival record support its most serious claims?
This book subjects Marr’s account to a rigorous forensic examination. Drawing on verifiable archival records with strict adherence to the principles of archival probity and ethics. It reconstructs the documentary trail for some of the most controversial episodes in Queensland’s colonial past.
The result is a fundamental challenge-not simply to Marr’s interpretation, but to the historical methods that have come to dominate Australia’s History Wars. From the alleged Kilcoy poisoning to the wider claims of systematic frontier massacres, the author argues that rumour, inference, and political narrative have too often displaced documentary proof. Provocative, uncompromising, and grounded in the archives, this book asks readers to decide for themselves.

Coming soon: a new book by Paul Dillon that offers fresh insights into David Marr’s highly successful Killing For Country. Dillon draws on years of research into settler/indigenous contact and the treatment of Aboriginal people.