Jack Burnett decides to go prospecting on an uninhabited island in the Barrier Reef with a friend. The friend goes mad and tries to kill Jack. Jack discovers some opium stashed away by Japanese smugglers. Jack is rescued and sells the opium to a Chinese merchant in Cooktown.
InCairns, Jack runs into the Japanese smugglers, but manages to escape with the help of a woman he has fallen in love with.[3]
The book was based on a true incident that happened to Idriess. In 1923 he was marooned on Howick Island in Queensland with a friend he had gone prospecting with. The friend had a war injury which sent him mad and he tried to kill Idriess.[4]
Idriess kept a diary of his time on the island and used it as the basis for the book. He sold it to a publisher in 1925.[1][5][6]
Idriess fictionalised the story, including a subplot about opium smuggling.
Idriess rewrote the book after he had achieved acclaim with his other writings. He removed the fictional elements and instead revised it as a memoir. It was republished in 1938 and was a large success, selling 70,000 copies.[1][9][10][11][12]
The novel was serialised for radio in 1941,[13] the first time one of his books was so adapted,[14] and on which it was read by Ellis Price.[15][16][17] It was adapted for radio again in 1949.[18]
^"NEW FICTION". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 27, 898. New South Wales, Australia. 4 June 1927. p. 10. Retrieved 16 April 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
^"Marooned". The Telegraph. No. 15, 675. Queensland, Australia. 23 February 1923. p. 6. Retrieved 16 April 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
^"MADMAN'S ISLAND". Daily Examiner. Vol. 17, no. 2549. New South Wales, Australia. 4 September 1925. p. 7. Retrieved 16 April 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
^"Marooned on Madman's Island". Sunday Mail. No. 445. Queensland, Australia. 30 October 1938. p. 1 (MAGAZINE SECTION). Retrieved 16 April 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
^"Thrills Pack LIfe: Idriess Was 'Broke' So Took To Pen", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 36 (27), Sydney: Wireless Press, July 5, 1941, nla.obj-721538126, retrieved 12 December 2023 – via Trove
^"Idriess Stories For Broadcast", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 35 (48), Sydney: Wireless Press, November 30, 1940, retrieved 12 December 2023 – via Trove
^"NSW Commercial progammes", ABC Weekly, 11 (3), Sydney, 15 January 1949, retrieved 12 December 2023 – via Trove
