His book Catalina Dreaming is a great read and received deserved praise a while back on the Pacific and General Aviation forum
from THE AGE -
January 30, 2012
Lindsay Murdoch
Northern Territory author, poet, journalist and musical satirist Andrew McMillan.
Photo: Glenn Campbell
NORTHERN Territory author, poet, journalist and musical satirist Andrew McMillan died at the weekend after a long illness. He was 54.
For decades, McMillan welcomed writers, artists and musicians to his book-strewn bunker under a house in central Darwin.
''If you want to know what's ticking in this place, come and have a beer,'' he told me during a telephone call, when I arrived in Darwin to work as a correspondent in 2004.
McMillan mentored many young writers, and spent much of his time working in disadvantaged Aboriginal communities.
Born in Brisbane, he settled in the territory after reporting on Midnight Oil's tour of central Australia with the Warumpi Band in 1988.
His book
An Intruder's Guide to East Arnhem Land reflected his deep understanding of Aboriginal beliefs and culture. First published in 2001, the book won the NT Chief Minister's Book of the Year when it was reissued three years ago.
McMillan also published
Catalina Dreaming, a history of the Australian flying boats and their crews during World War II.
Despite being diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2010, he was performing until his death on Saturday, producing a CD with his band, the Rattling Mudguards, and finishing an anthology of his writings.
His estate and any income from royalties will be dedicated to setting up a writer's retreat in his favourite place, the tiny settlement of Larrimah, 430 kilometres south-east of Darwin, where he will also be buried.