Murder at Myall Creek: The Trial that Defined a Notion.

Sydney: Simon & Schuster, 2017. 1st p/b ed.. Paperback trade, very good plus condition, black & white & colour photos centre spread, minor edgewear. 320 pp. In 1838, eleven convicts and former convicts were put on trial for the brutal murder of 28 Aboriginal men, women and children at Myall Creek in New South Wales. The trial created an enormous amount of controversy because it was unknown for Europeans to be charged with the murder of Aborigines.The prosecutor was the Attorney General of New South Wales, John Plunkett. This was his greatest test, as it pitted his forensic brilliance and his belief in equality before the law against the combined forces of the free settlers, the squatters, the military, the emancipists, the newspapers, and even the convict population. Some of perpetrator’s were hanged. The author, a senior lawyer, also brilliantly describes the social setting in the 1830s and 1840s.