In 1905 Frederic Slater, while working for the Evening Telegraph at Charters Towers in Queensland, was sued for libel after reporting salacious detail about a divorce case in the local court. Slater also wrote 'Interpretation of the Drawings at Burragurra and Yango' (1937), part of a paper read to the Australasian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, about Aboriginal rock carvings found in the Wollombi district of New South Wales. His manuscripts of a similar focus include 'Boondoba Burragurru : All About the Writing on the Rock' (date unknown), 'Burragurru or Devil's Rock' (1937) and 'Music Teaching the Sons of Man the Mysteries of Life and Death' (date unknown).