The Lizard Eaters by Douglas Lockwood

The Lizard Eaters

by Douglas Lockwood

Readers Book Club, 1964, black and white photographic plates, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, previous owners gift inscription on front endpaper, age toned pages, minor staining to bottom corner of last dozen pages, price-clipped dustjacket in fair condition with tears, parts missing, chips and in separate pieces (see photographs)

“It seems fantastic that, in the Australia of the Jets-and-Electronics Age, there should be people living who have had no contact whatever with our civilisation; people who have never seen white faces – nor their own image in a mirror – nor been close to a motor vehicle of any kind.
For many years there had been rumours of such a Lost Tribe in the vast deserts of Central Australia, but generally they were treated as fantasy.  The existence of the Pintubi nomads was confirmed, however, but welfare officers of the Northern Territory Administration who began patrolling the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts in 1957.
Then in 1963, the Melbourne Herald’s Darwin correspondent, Douglas Lockwood, was invited to join a patrol.  Here, in vivid detail, he tells the fascinating story of that journey and the discovery of yet more Pintubi people… perhaps the oldest primitive tribe remaining on earth.  Nor does the author fail to stress the sincere and profound respect he felt for people who, for thousands of years, had somehow survived in unbelievably harsh conditions.”