Genealogy Australia

Originally published in 1863, this edition of Seventeen Years’ Exile was edited and published by Edmund Gregory in 1896. It describes James Murrells’ life, and adventures among the native tribes following his shipwreck off the Queensland coast.

Murrells was born in 1824 in Heybridge, Essex. In 1846 he shipped on board the ship Peruvian bound for China from Sydney with a cargo of hardwood. He was shipwrecked and spent forty-two days on a raft before landing on Cape Cleveland. For the next seventeen years he lived with native tribes before returning to “civilization” in January 1863. He settled in Bowen having been offered a position in the Custom House there and it was in Bowen that he died in 1865.

Port Denison Times:—
It is our mournful duty to record the death of the pioneer white man in the north, James Morrill , which took place on Monday, 30th October (1865). For some time he had been suffering from the effects of a wound received in the knee during his sojourn among the aborigines, ....

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