More of the Kangaroo

Murray Bird and Greg Parker

Despite commonly held misconceptions, Australian football has been played in Queensland for a long time. Over 150 years ago the first Brisbane Football Club was formed and since then Australian rules football has been played in the sunshine state, albeit for a brief period in the last decade of the 19th century.

After over a decade of research, Greg Parker and Murray Bird released More of the Kangaroo in late November 2018. The comprehensive history is over 900 pages in length and covers the trajectory of the code throughout the state. It includes over 500 images and reveals facts about the evolution of the code at a local level that are little known. This book is a local history, detailing the heroics, the controversies, the premierships and the success and failures, from Cairns to Coolangatta. Local heroes and villains, champion teams from Townsville to Toowong, umpires, interstate matches, women’s football and much more are chronicled, described and brought to life.

If you love the game of Australian football, if you have an interest in the history of Queensland, or if you just like a well-researched and well-written book, More of the Kangaroo is the book for you.