Jack Cross grew up in the lower Flinders Ranges amid the influences of the German Lutheran community. He holds qualifications from Adelaide Teachers College, the University of Adelaide, the University of Melbourne and Stanford University in California, and has worked as a teacher, freerange poultry farmer and associate professor. Jack spent five years as a Research Fellow in Australian History at the University of Adelaide. For twenty years he was Head of Studies in Education at what is now the University of South Australia. He was a founder of the Aboriginal Tauondi College at Port Adelaide and the Anangu Teacher Education program at Ernabella in the APY Lands. He was author of Schooling the Conflict of Belief, and a member of the Classification Board. Jack has been awarded life membership of the WEA and the University of the Third Age Adelaide for his contribution to adult education. Jack Cross is married to Jillian and has no children.
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'From its murky beginnings during the 1860s, the Northern Territory became the exotic locus of South Australia's best utopian dreams and worst administrative nightmares. Jack Cross has trawled through the record of this extraordinary colonial venture, sorting folly from foresight and identifying pioneers and villains, opportunists and adventurers. He has given us a frank, unrestrained history of Australia's own frontier colony.' - Philip Jones
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'Valuable reading … an expansive story of human folly, pride and hubris, overarching ambition, petty jealousy, murderous payback and interstate rivalry not least with those greedy graziers from Queensland. He enriches the story with descriptions and analysis of characters who are pioneers, idealists, opportunists, adventurers and villains; it is a fascinating cast!' - Philip Raymont, Reviews in Australian Studies