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When Eliza Fraser was shipwrecked off the coast of Queensland in 1836, eventually landing on what was to become known as Fraser Island, there were up to 3000 Aboriginal people living there. By 1905 only twenty or thirty remained. Gillian Crate's essay film employs a diary / road movie form, following the route of early colonial expansion north from Sydney to Frazer Island. In the process the filmmaker protagonist seeks to discover the truth about massacres, genocide and cover-ups that characterise Australian race relations. The film is bracketed by sequences from Allan Marett's Noh theatre treatment of the Eliza Fraser myth; in which the ghost of Eliza Fraser is trapped in the "realm of ghosts" because of her refusal to acknowledge her lies. In exploring a dimension of myth in history and its representation, Island of Lies makes a significant contribution to the tradition of Australian documentary engaging with issues of race relations. The film was made through the AFC's Documentary Fellowship Scheme, which has since been scrapped. Island of Lies represents a mode of documentary film making, of craft, development and exploration which sadly, it might not be possible to make now in Australia. (JH)