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PRESS RELEASE

Phillip Mathews, December 2000

This book reveals the story behind the bitter struggle between the Skeptics Vs Creationists that was played out in the courts in New South Wales and Victoria. The very public figures in that struggle, Professor Plimer and Dr.Roberts, took centre stage and both, in the end, were ruined by it.

Less well known is the key figure who "discovered" Noah's Ark in present-day Turkey, American wreck salvager and adventurer David Fasold. A well-in-formed man of unimpeachable character, Fasold suffered most for the "find" that triggered the Skeptics Vs Creationists court cases. He lost all of his money, his health, and eventually his life.

Author June Dawes, an Australian, tried to help find Fasold justice in the Australian court cases. She not only became Fasold's confidante, and as such knew Plimer. She was also a distant relation by marriage to the other protagonist, Allen Roberts. No-one had a more intimate knowledge of the behind the scenes maneuvering of both factions that the author.

So distressed was she by what she saw as the ruthless treatment of Fasold by both parties, and so frustrated by the inadequacy of the press coverage, that she pledged to Fasold on his deathbed that she would write a book exposing the detail she knew and clearing his good name.

This book tells all, with no punches pulled. She explains how Fasold arrived at the conclusion that the artifact was in fact Noah's Ark, the way in which his work was plagiarized, which led to the famous court case, and how all involved behaved badly. Dawes was not the only one to recognize that Fasold was the only credible and absolutely innocent party in the court cases and maneuvers behind them. According to the presiding judge, Fasold was the only witness in this landmark major case who emerged as both honest and forthright.

Dawes argues that this would surprise no-one who knew his real story. Her book sets that right.