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Forty-five minutes after his arrest for swearing at a police officer and his incarceration in the Palm Island watch house, 36 year-old Cameron Doomadgee was dead, with injuries like those of someone who had been in a car crash.

Author Chloe Hooper's new book, The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island recounts these events - the subject of her free public lecture at The University of Western Australia next week.

Police claimed the man tripped, but the community disagreed and burnt down the police station, bringing national attention to the story that started in November 2004.

A graduate of the University of Melbourne and the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, Ms Hooper received an MFA in Writing from Columbia University, New York.

Her first novel, a satire, A Child's book of True Crime, was a New York Times Notable Book and shortlisted for the prestigious UK Orange Prize.

The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island will be available for sale and signing after the lecture, part of the 2008 Humanities Lecture Series, co-sponsored by UWA's Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the Institute of Advanced Studies.

It will be held at 6pm on Tuesday 12 August in UWA's Alexander Lecture Theatre.

Media references

Audrey Barton (Institute of Advanced Studies)  (+61 8) 6488 4797
Simone Hewett / Sally-Ann Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8) 6488 7977
(+61 4) 20 790 097 / (+61 4) 20 790 098