'The year is 1859, the transition time between the old life and the new, the beginning of the end for the Australian [A]borigines as a pure race. Phillip and David Nichols, sailing their new boat in Moreton Bay, are shipwrecked and washed ashore on Stradbroke Island. Cast on their own resources with nothing but a pen-knife, their clothes and their courage, the boys are found by a family of kindly nomads. Kaiya and his people are themselves outcasts and pursuing a ferocious tribal vendetta. They are good to the boys and teach them the lore of the wilds, sharing their hunting, their shelter, their fears and their fighting, until at last Phillip and David find their own civilisation again.' (Back cover blurb)
