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The Shameful Isles
The true story of Northwest Australia's fatal experiment with medical apartheid
Brief Description
The Shameful Isles is a unique resource on north-west Australia's fatal experiment with medical apartheid. In 1907, the Western Australian government began a programme of forcibly removing supposedly ill Aboriginal people to purpose-built lock hospitals on Bernier and Dorre Islands, off the coast of Carnarvon. There,...
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The Shameful Isles
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The Shameful Isles reveals one of Western Australia's most tragic acts of state-sponsored oppression of First Nations peoples.
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Description
The Shameful Isles is a unique resource on north-west Australia's fatal experiment with medical apartheid.
In 1907, the Western Australian government began a programme of forcibly removing supposedly ill Aboriginal people to purpose-built lock hospitals on Bernier and Dorre Islands, off the coast of Carnarvon. There, they were trapped against their will and exposed to experimental drugs and procedures. Many never returned and are buried in unmarked graves in the sandhills of Bernier and Dorre.
Comprised of meticulous research and contemporaneous accounts of patient-prisoners, politicians, stockmen, nurses, policemen, and journalists, The Shameful Isles reveals one of Western Australia's most tragic acts of state-sponsored oppression from which First Nations peoples are still recovering.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781760994174
Publisher: Fremantle Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 29 July 2025
Country: Australia
Imprint: Fremantle Press
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 15.0mm
Width: 153.0mm
Height: 235.0mm
Weight: 452g
Pages: 288
About the Author
David Price is a Western Australian educator and writer who grew up in the small northwest town of Carnarvon. His first book, Dark Tales from the Long River, was published by Fremantle Press in 2020 and explored some lesser-known and sadder historical events of the Gascoyne and Murchison Regions.
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