Starlight’s Trail

Harry Redford’s epic journey down the Cooper

by James Cowan

Photographs by Colin Beard

Doubleday, 1985, [First Edition], [SIGNED], ISBN 0868241695, full colour photographs throughout, colour photographic title and introductory pages, large hardcover with illustrated boards, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, SIGNED by author on facing half title page, minor edge and shelf wear, minor rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, dustjacket shows minor edge and shelf wear with a little rubbing to edges and corners, minor discoloration at spine of jacket (see photographs)

“In 1870 a small-time cattle thief named Harry Redford stole a 1000 head of cattle and a white bull from Bowen Downs property in central Queensland.  He then drove his stolen herd down the Barcoo River, Cooper’s Creek and the Strzelecki Track into South Australia to dispose of them.
Thus began one of the most amazing overlanding feats in Australian history.  Not only did Harry Redford succeed in crossing a remote and inhospitable wilderness where others had failed before him, but his exploits alone ensured him a permanent place in the folk imagination of the day.  Rolf Bolderwood in his famous novel, Robbery Under Arms, immortalised Harry as the bushranger, Captain Starlight.
Starlight’s Trail traces the remarkable journey that Harry Redford made.  Both author and photographer have tried to recreate the social conditions of the time and the places through which Harry passed.  They have also examined the lives of early explorers such as Burke and Wills, Sturt and Leichhardt.  As foreigners they were lost in a country-side they did not understand; while Redford, a natural bushman, was able to traverse the Cooper’s Creek region with ease.”