Set in a future where the centre of Australia is under the control of Aboriginals, while the 'Nationals' are confined to the thin coastal strips,
Twilight Beach explores a future that might have arisen from the Mabo/Native title debates of the early 1990s.
'Dowling's troubled hero, Tom Tyson is the captain of a
sand-ship and one of the few authorised to travel across
Aboriginal lands. Tyson, a future version of the Wandering
Jew, has been imprisoned and released from the "Madhouse"
at Cape Bedlam. His past is unclear, and Dowling implies
that some of Tyson's earlier memories are not what they
seemed — has Tyson been programmed after his "madness"
occurred' (Colin Steele,
SF Commentary No 77 2001, p.52)