Terra Nullius

by T.D. McKinnon, Zoë Lake (Editor)

Based on a true story; Terra Nullius is an historical fiction that chronicles the events of the 19th century through the eyes of the unfortunate race who, at the time, just happened to occupy the best piece of real-estate in the southern hemisphere. It’s no secret that history is written by the victors and conquerors. More often than not, characters in history are portrayed two dimensionally; with, inevitably, no recourse for the disenfranchised depiction. Invaders can, and do, present their own version of events with dry statements of the facts, from their point of view; casting themselves, historically speaking, in a softer, fuzzier light. The facts of this story however are indisputable; aliens invaded the Caretakers’ land and proclaimed the land 'Terra Nullius' (land of none): a neutral or uninhabited area or land not under sovereignty of any recognised political entity and therefore theirs for the taking; with no regard for, or consideration of, the standing residents. Displacing them, the invaders stole their women and systematically murdered, raped and pillaged; spreading disease and decimating their number into virtual extinction. Over a period of two years, I would finish a day of research and go to bed (with the bones of history in my head), and then wake in the night with a whole chapter screaming to be written (the muscle and sinew to flesh out the bones of the story). It was as if the ghosts of this troubled land were queuing up at my bedside for their turn to tell their tale. All the characters in this story are actual historical persons; their stories are dramatisations built around factual events. A central character is Trucannini, who witnessed the rape or murder, or both, of her sisters, mother and brother, and the mutilation and murder of her fiancé, and was herself pack raped; all by her sixteenth year. Beginning around two hundred years ago; it took just seventy years to all but obliterate a race of people who had taken care of their land for more than forty thousand years. For such a huge, systematic atrocity to have occurred in our quite recent past; an episode that is not taught, as a matter of fact, in Australian history lessons; a chapter that is not common knowledge even in Tasmania, let alone Australia and the world at large, is quite unbelievable, and an indication of the massive guilt buried deep within the Australian and especially Tasmanian psyche. That it occurred is beyond comprehension; but that it was then, and to this day, conveniently forgotten beggars belief! Terra Nullius is a tale that weaves its way very tightly around the recorded facts of that period; without the gloss, without the whitewash, without the colonial mindset slant that anything written about that era generally contains. Calling a spade a spade, an invader an invader, Terra Nullius gives a very human face, with all the complexities that entails, to the people who were the standing residents of Tasmania, formally Van Diemen's Land; originally simply The Land. Filling in the blanks, I have fleshed out the stories behind the facts, presenting far more plausible probabilities than those shrewdly alluded by the conquerors, from their colonial point of view.

271 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2011

About the author

Born in Scotland in 1950 and raised in the coalmining communities of Scotland and England, T.D. McKinnon joined the British Parachute Regiment when he was just fifteen years old. After spending five years in the British army he worked at a number of occupations including bus driver, furnace-man, builder's labourer, roofer, bouncer, storeman, car salesman, life guard, aquatics manager, private investigator and for many years he was in high risk security: event and venue security, close personal protection, cash and gem escort and armed, rapid response for a national bank group. His close personal protection company had a number of high profile clients including a member of the Spanish royal family and, during his visit to Australia, an a United States President.

Training in the martial arts for most of his life and becoming a master in several forms he represented at national level, both in Scotland and Australia, and became a national referee. As well as teaching and instructing in the private and corporate sectors, he taught at government and private schools.

Whilst at school T.D. McKinnon displayed a natural talent for writing, but it wasn't until the 1980s, after moving to Australia, that he began writing again. Always writing for his own enjoyment, after having publications in the 'Letters to the Editor' columns of several Sydney newspapers, the inevitable, delayed budding of his writing career began. Following articles published in 'Impact, Blitz and 'Combat', martial arts magazines, and 'The Green Earth', an environmental newspaper, he began submitting short stories to various magazines e.g. 'Cosmopolitan' etc.

A prolific writer T.D. now writes full time in the genres of action/thriller, speculative fiction, memoir and historical fiction.

T.D. McKinnon lives in Tasmania with his wife, professional actress, singer, dancer and editor, Zoe Lake.

T.D. currently has several projects in progress, including contributing a story for a children’s storybook by Franklin House, National Trust of Australia, as part of the Tasmanian Heritage Festival and to run in line with the Australian ‘National year of Reading’; due for publication in May 2012.

Reviews

[Linda Parkinson-Hardman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Terra Nullius in a little over two nights and it made compelling reading; I was both enthralled and enraged by the story. The title Terra Nullius explains the whole – it is a term used for centuries to condone the expansion into what was a little known world and it means ‘No One’s Land. What TD has done is to take a small number of known historical facts about the systematic genocide of an ancient race by the colonialists of the 19thC and weave them into a fantastic piece of fiction that looks at that time from the perspective of the indigenous population. There were times when I found the story hard to bear because it was so graphic in its description of what it could have been like; my heart broke for the people who had been used and abused so cruelly. And yet, at the end of the telling, I feel enriched because of having my world view challenged and my emotions expanded.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm always fascinated by tales based in historical fact and Terra Nullius is a good depiction of how it COULD have been for Tasmania's indigenous population when the British Colonies arrived. Mixing researched facts with fictional 're-creations' of Trucannini's life, the story is interesting and paints a very good picture for the reader. The writing style is very matter-of-fact, even when spoken in first person, which took a little getting used to for me, but as I read more it enabled me to attribute my own imagined emotions to the characters. The bleak tapestry of life for the convicts and first settlers is woven cleverly through the telling of this tale, and although they are the enemy in this story, I could still empathise with the hard life everyone was enduring, even while I found the behaviour detestable.

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in conjunction with a few other Tasmanian history books, the combination brought to light the brutal and blatant ignorance of western colonization.