No truer book title!

 

Critchley Parker ; Lost In Tasmania Searching For A New Jerusalem; Poynduk 1942

 Critchley Parker, aged only 31, trekked into the Tasmanian wilderness in an effort to find suitable land for future Jewish settlements far away from the bloodshed of Europe.

He was not Jewish himself but he was infatuated with a (married) Jewish journalist named Caroline Isaacson, and was determined to help find a permanent peaceful refuge for those fleeing the violent horrors of WW2. 

During his fateful trek near Port Davey he discovered a small pond with swans, called poynduk in the local Ninene language. Critchley hoped to name the settlement Poynduk but this was not to be.

Critchley had had TB which had left his lungs and overall health in a weakened state; the weather turned suddenly and he was caught in bucketing rain for weeks that triggered pleurisy. He had planned to light a signal fire to alert the fisherman to come pick him up but he ran out of matches, ran out of food, ran out of time.

But he never ran out of plans for the future settlement of Poynduk; he wrote in his copious notes that he wished it to be based on the "principals of racial tolerance and international brotherhood", to have universities open to students of all colours, medical facilities, schools, hydro-electric power plants. 

Critchley planned for the Tasmanian Games to be hosted at Poynduk each year; the games would celebrate not just sports but poetry, plays, weaving, music and pottery.

Alas, with his early death in the wilderness Critchley's plans for Poynduk were dashed for good.

Further reading -

“Poynduk”: the Extravagant, Impossible (and Understandable) Dreams of Critchley Parker

Melbourne's Botanic Gardens Shooting Spree Norman List 23 January 1924

 Almost a century ago a young man displayed worrying mental health symptoms - paranoia, believing wireless messages were being sent to his mind to control him, to hurt his family, that people were telling lies about him and his family, that his enemies had a radio system that advertised him everywhere he went...(I'd like to know what Professor Graeme Yorston made of him).

After tramping all over the world, fighting in WW1, Norman List returned to his family home in Richmond, Victoria, where these symptoms were on full display.

This all came out after the horrific shooting spree he orchestrated at the Melbourne Botanic Gardens; in just 4 minutes four people were dead.

Their names were

Frederick McIlwaine

Miriam Podbury

Eugenie Strohhecker

John Moxham

Norman List himself was found dead by suicide at Deep Creek near Pakenham, Victoria.

Further reading - 

Massacre At The Botanic Gardens

Tracker Alec Riley 1884 - 1970

 This absolute legend worked to bring criminals to justice but also to help find and/or recover those lost in the bush.

Sidenote - the movie One Night The Moon 2001 is based on him not being allowed to set foot onto a white fella's farm to help look for a missing child.

Tracker Riley spent long, arduous hours combing the bush for evidence when tracking criminals, and in the case of Mad Mossy (Narromine Murders 1939) he spent more than 12 months tracking, tracing and gathering evidence as to the multiple murders.

Reaching the rank of Sergeant in NSW police in 1941 was a first for any Indigenous person, in 1943 he was awarded the King's Police and Fire Services Medal for Distinguished Conduct.

Tracker Riley and his family lived at the Talbragar Reserve at Dubbo.

The movie Blacktracker 1996 is based on Tracker Alec Riley's life.

Further reading - 

Tracker Alec Riley biography

Baron Joseph De Nosek 1821 - 1894

 Soldiering about, stirring insurrection, Baron Joseph De Nosek found himself in Australia after fighting in the Crimean War.

The little bit of insurrection saw him lose his hereditary estates in Poland, so he turned his hand to gold mining, then in 1869 Baron De Nosek became the President of The Victorian Miners Protection League before settling on the career of a licensed victualler (aka publican) at Campbell's Creek, Victoria.

Further reading -

Baron De Nosek buried at Campbell's Creek Cemetery, Victoria.

Starlight aka Edward William Rollins 1852 - 1928 Middleweight Champion of Australasia

 Edward Rollins, born in British Guiana, was a popular and successful Australian middleweight boxer known as Starlight. 

During his career he fought for the title of Australian Middleweight Championship four times, he toured Australia, New Zealand and the UK, where he became friends with the King.

He married Kate Pratt and together they had one daughter; their great-granddaughter is singer Colleen Hewett.

Further reading in Starlight's own words -

The life of "Starlight" (E.W. Rolins ) : ex-middle weight champion of Australasia.

The King of Iceland, founder of Hobart, Jorgen Jorgensen 29 March 1780 – 20 January 1841

 Jorgen Jorgensen was talented in many ways; sailor, spy, seditionist and silly bugger.

He was present at the foundation of Hobart, witnessed the Battle of Copenhagen, arrested the Danish Governor of Iceland then declared himself the Protector of Iceland - which lasted barely 2 months before he was voted off the island and back to England.

He managed to get employed by the British Intelligence Service where he translated documents and wandered about as a spy during the Napoleonic Wars, but then ran into a little trouble where he was accused of theft and voted back to an island , Tasmania.

The Convict King is immortalised in stone relief on the beautiful Ross Bridge with his crown.

Further reading -

Jørgen Jørgensen: The Convict King