Making of Martin Sparrow/The Ship That Never Was

Duration: 60 minutes

Martin Sparrow is already struggling when the Hawkesbury's great flood of March 1806 lays waste to him and his farm. Luckless, lovelorn and deep in debt, the ex-convict is confronted with a choice.

The greatest escape story of Australian colonial history by the son of Australia's best-loved storyteller. In 1823, Cockney sailor and chancer James Porter was convicted of stealing a stack of beaver furs and transported halfway around the world to Van Dieman's Land.

Chair: Anna Johnston

Presented by The University of Queensland