The Friends of the Toowoomba Library crowded into their book launch room in Toowoomba to celebrate the launch of the CQU Press book – 'Beyond the Legend. A Kimberley Story' – by local author Noni Durack.

Noni married Bill Durack back in the early 1950s and was determined to celebrate the achievements of her husband Bill and his brother Kim. The two Durack brothers were the first Australians ever to attempt irrigated agriculture on the Ord River in 1944-45, well before the building of the huge Ord River Dam.

'Beyond the Legend' is a moving record of a vital turning point in pioneering history of the Kimberly region, where the human passions are as savage as the wilderness of the country.

CQU Publisher Professor David Myers thanked the president of the Friends of the Toowoomba Library, Terry Carter, for hosting the very convivial event and said that he saw Noni’s book as a fitting epitaph to the classic work by Mary Durack, 'Kings in Grass Castles'.

Editor and columnist with 'The Courier Mail', Des Houghton, launched the new publication and also penned a generous tribute to the book and to the Durack family, with whom he is a long-standing friend, in 'The Courier Mail'. Des amused the audience with his interpretation of the meaning of Meanjin; he said it was an ancient Aboriginal word which meant “rejected by the New Yorker”.

Central Queensland University Press, using its imprint, www.outbackbooks.com, has now published numerous books recording the history and heritage of the Kimberley region, including 'In the Tracks of Old Bluey', 'The Gun Ringer' by Geoff Allen, 'Lipstick, Swag and Sweatrag' by Beth Beckett and 'Keep the Branding Iron Hot' by the great granddaughter of Nat Buchanan, Bobbie Buchanan.

Photo above: Octogenarian author of the Kimberley classic, 'Beyond the Legend', Noni Durack with CQU press publisher Professor David Myers.

Photo below: Author Noni Durack with husband Bill Durack and launch speaker Des Houghton (left) of the Courier Mail.