Last leaves from Dunk Island (Australian classics) - Hardcover

Banfield, E. J

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0855506563 ISBN 13: 9780855506568

Publisher: Lloyd O'Neil for Currey O'Neil, 1982

Synopsis

On the 5th of June, 1923, the small steamer Innisfail was passing between Dunk Island and the coast of northern Queensland, when the captain noticed a figure waving from the island beach. Interpreting the signal as a greeting, he merely waved a response. Then, as the vessel proceeded, the figure on the beach collapsed. At once the Innisfail was stopped and a party went to investigate.

It was in this manner that the world learned of the death of E. J. Banfield, self-styled "Beachcomber" of Dunk Island, the most renowned literary man of his kind in Australian history, and, perhaps, the most striking naturalist-recluse of modern times. The signaller on the beach was Mrs. Banfield, who had been alone with her dead for three days. So ended a tropic idyll of twenty-five years' duration.

Excerpt:
THE TEMPEST
I

Early in the year 1918 two great storms visited the coast of North Queensland. One centred off the port of Mackay, four hundred miles to the south of Dunk Island, on 21st January, and the other about twenty-five miles to the north, on 10th March.

Forty-eight hours prior to the Mackay storm premonitory effects were observed here, succeeding a memorable tidal jumble. During a breathless calm a mysterious northerly swell set in. To ears accustomed to the silence and the musical whisperings of a sheltered bay, the roar and burst of the breakers of a wind-forgotten sea suggested a confused mental picture--a blending of black and grey without form.

Heaving, as with deep-drawn breaths, out from the beach the sea seemed to be both restless and angry, as glistening rollers heaved themselves on to the strand, to be shattered into spray. They rifled the Barrier Reef, threw on the sand lumps of coral to which brown seaweed hung, like the scalps of mermaids, and swept them to and fro with savage persistency.
They brought driftwood from afar, and claimed all sorts of sun-dried relics from previous depositary moods.

After a time the sea became silent again, with a sparkling, wavering ripple, while the noise of its assault on the mainland beach had the tone of distant, unceasing thunder.

Ten days before the second storm, while the sky was cloudless and the air serene, a change in the quality of the heat was felt. During the first three months of the year--the period of heavy rainfall--the temperature is generally humid., Suddenly it became dry and burning, with a tingling intensity, as rare as uncomfortable. For the time the moist vapours of a mild steam-bath were dispersed by scorching breath as from a furnace, to the discomfort of animal life and the injury of vegetation.

Early on the morning of Sunday, 10th March, the sky became overcast. A fresh southerly breeze had sprung up during the night. A short, confused sea tumbled in the channel, and the usually placid bay mimicked its sport. With fearsome steadiness of purpose, the wind developed as it veered to the east. At 5 p.m. It was travelling at furious speed, twisting branches from trees and thickening the now gloomy skies with leaves. Consistently with the strength of the wind the barometer fell until between 9 and 10 p.m., when, with a conglomeration of terrifying sounds varying from falsetto shrieks to thunderous roars, the centre of the cyclone seemed to bore down on the very vitals of the island.

The devastating assault lasted about half an hour; it was followed by a lull, succeeded by another attack of violence from the north and north-west; then, as orderly as the storm had developed so it subsided.

Further Reading:
Written by E J Banfield and available from ADB Publishing
Last Leaves from Dunk Island – This Book
The Confessions of a Beachcomber
My Tropic Isle
Tropic Days

About this edition

• Publisher: Lloyd O'Neil for Currey O'Neil
• Publication date: 1982
• ISBN 10: 0855506563
• ISBN 13: 9780855506568
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232