image of person or book cover 1939758027291942887.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Thicker Than Water single work   biography  
Issue Details: First known date: 2016... 2016 Thicker Than Water
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A compelling and beautifully written memoir about dark and shameful family secrets, and one young woman's pilgrimage to Australia to attempt to lay the past to rest.

'British journalist Cal Flyn was holidaying in her childhood home in the Highlands of Scotland, when she stumbled upon a dark family secret. To her horror, she discovered that her great-great-great uncle Angus McMillan, who had been mythologized as a great explorer and pioneer of early Australia, was in fact also the leader of a number of gruesome massacres of indigenous people. In 1843, he led a loosely formed "Highland brigade", linked to a series of assaults so ferocious that the sites would ever after be synonymous with bloodshed: Butchers Creek, Boney Point, Skull Creek, Slaughterhouse Gully.

'Driven to piece together his story and to confront her own history, Cal decided to retrace McMillan's journey to Australia, looking for answers: how could a man lauded for his generosity and integrity commit such terrible acts? How could people who directly suffered from the brutal expulsion of the Highland Clearances re-enact this brutality in Australia? And has today's generation inherited a responsibility to atone for its ancestors' sins?

'Part family memoir, part travelogue, part history, and an intimate, revealing and fascinating journey into our Australian heritage, Thicker than Water is a beautifully written, wholly compelling and devastatingly clear-eyed examination of the burden of intergenerational grief and inherited guilt that we all carry with us.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

August in Nonfiction Sarah Burnside , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , August 2016;

— Review of Thicker Than Water Cal Flyn , 2016 single work biography ; Giving This Country a Memory : Contemporary Aboriginal Voices of Australia Anne Brewster , 2015 multi chapter work interview ; Wasted : A Story of Alcohol, Grief and a Death in Brisbane Elspeth Muir , 2016 single work autobiography ; A Long Time Coming : Essays on Old Age Melanie Joosten , 2016 selected work essay
Scottish Journalist Cal Flyn Tracks Relative Angus McMillan, Linked to Gippsland Massacres Bec Symons , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , August 2016;

— Review of Thicker Than Water Cal Flyn , 2016 single work biography
'A journalist's quest to find out more about her ancestor's pioneering days in Gippsland turned into a tumultuous journey after discovering he was linked to the massacre of Indigenous people. ...'
‘My Relative Was a Mass Murderer of Australia's Gunai People. Can I Make Amends?’ Cal Flyn , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 22 May 2016;

'Cal Flyn’s ancestor was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Indigenous men, women and children in 19th century Australia.

'"In 2011 I made an uncomfortable discovery about my family history. I had a famous great-great-great uncle, I learned: Angus McMillan. He was an explorer of early Australia, but in recent years he has also been identified as the man responsible for a series of massacres of the Gunai (sometimes referred to as the Gunaikurnai) people of Gippsland in the south-eastern state of Victoria."'

Is This Such a Man? Peter Crowley , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Inside Story , June 2016;

— Review of Thicker Than Water Cal Flyn , 2016 single work biography
'Angus McMillan’s name has become attached to at least one massacre in Victoria’s Gippsland region, writes Peter Crowley. But does the evidence support the case against him?'
[Review] Cal Flyn, Thicker than Water Laura Deane , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November vol. 9 no. 1 2016;

— Review of Thicker Than Water Cal Flyn , 2016 single work biography
Scottish Journalist Cal Flyn Tracks Relative Angus McMillan, Linked to Gippsland Massacres Bec Symons , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , August 2016;

— Review of Thicker Than Water Cal Flyn , 2016 single work biography
'A journalist's quest to find out more about her ancestor's pioneering days in Gippsland turned into a tumultuous journey after discovering he was linked to the massacre of Indigenous people. ...'
August in Nonfiction Sarah Burnside , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , August 2016;

— Review of Thicker Than Water Cal Flyn , 2016 single work biography ; Giving This Country a Memory : Contemporary Aboriginal Voices of Australia Anne Brewster , 2015 multi chapter work interview ; Wasted : A Story of Alcohol, Grief and a Death in Brisbane Elspeth Muir , 2016 single work autobiography ; A Long Time Coming : Essays on Old Age Melanie Joosten , 2016 selected work essay
[Review] Cal Flyn, Thicker than Water Laura Deane , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November vol. 9 no. 1 2016;

— Review of Thicker Than Water Cal Flyn , 2016 single work biography
Is This Such a Man? Peter Crowley , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Inside Story , June 2016;

— Review of Thicker Than Water Cal Flyn , 2016 single work biography
'Angus McMillan’s name has become attached to at least one massacre in Victoria’s Gippsland region, writes Peter Crowley. But does the evidence support the case against him?'
‘My Relative Was a Mass Murderer of Australia's Gunai People. Can I Make Amends?’ Cal Flyn , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 22 May 2016;

'Cal Flyn’s ancestor was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Indigenous men, women and children in 19th century Australia.

'"In 2011 I made an uncomfortable discovery about my family history. I had a famous great-great-great uncle, I learned: Angus McMillan. He was an explorer of early Australia, but in recent years he has also been identified as the man responsible for a series of massacres of the Gunai (sometimes referred to as the Gunaikurnai) people of Gippsland in the south-eastern state of Victoria."'

Last amended 23 May 2017 15:36:08
X