The tragedy of the Dunbar – a story shared across generations
Join author Larry Writer for a discussion of his new book, The Shipwreck, a definitive account of the loss of the Dunbar in 1857. This talk brings together stories shared generation by generation of one of Australia's worst maritime disasters, set against Writer's meticulous research.
Since the great sailing clipper Dunbar was wrecked on South Head in 1857 with 121 lives lost, countless stories have been shared about the catastrophe that devastated Sydney and plunged the colony into deepest mourning. Sole survivor James Johnson shared the harrowing tale of his miraculous rescue. Eye-witnesses to the carnage on the cliffs and at The Gap shared their horror and their grief.
More recently, descendants of the ill-fated souls on the Dunbar, sailors, historians, maritime archaeologists, genealogists and Watsons Bay locals steeped in the tragedy, have shared their knowledge of the Dunbar with author Larry Writer.
Writer is a Woollahra-based author whose books include Razor, the saga of Sydney’s razor gangs of the 1920s and ’30s – basis of the top-rating 2011 Underbelly series Underbelly Razor.
Join Larry and Woollahra Libraries Local History staff for an author talk about the disaster that broke the colony’s heart and forged a nation.