Fort Dundas: The British in North Australia 1824-29

Fort Dundas was the first outpost of Europeans in Australia's north.

It was a British fortification manned by soldiers, marines and convicts, and built by them on remote Melville Island in 1824. It lasted until 1829, when it was abandoned and left to the termites.

In its short existence we have tales of great privation, survival, greed, piracy, slavery, murder, kidnapping, scurvy, births and weddings, and battles with the Indigenous inhabitants of the islands, the Tiwi.

What happened at Fort Dundas and why it was abandoned has been largely untold. Nevertheless, it is one of the most engaging stories of nineteenth century Australia.

"In clear and popular style, Derek Pugh tells the epic story of this gallant and ultimately misguided attempt to plant the first settlement on the wild coast of the future Northern Territory. It is truly an essential part of Territory and Australian history, which should be known to all." - Professor Alan Powell, Emeritus Professor of History, Charles Darwin University