Oddfellows – Picnic Day Broken Hill, 1 January 1915 | Nicholas Shakespeare | 2015 [SC]

On New Year's Day 1915, a picnic train carrying hundreds of Broken Hill residents to the Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows picnic was attacked by two men — Mulla Abdullah, an Afghan camel driver, and Gool Mahomed, an ice cream vendor — who opened fire on the train, killing four people and wounding seven before being pursued by a posse and killed.

The attack took place against the backdrop of the First World War — both men were reportedly inspired by the Ottoman Turks' declaration of jihad against the Allied powers in November 1914. It was the only attack on Australian soil that could be directly connected to WWI, and has been described as Australia's first terrorist attack.

Nicholas Shakespeare — author of In Tasmania, also available from The Book Cellar — researched this remarkable and largely forgotten event in Australian history.

At 121 pages, a concise and readable account of a genuinely strange moment in Australian history.

BOOK DETAILS

• Softcover.
• 121 pages.
• Published 2015.

CONDITION

New.

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