'Norman Baird's mother was an Indigenous Australian and his father was native to Scotland. Baird learnt skills from both cultures: reading and writing, mining and hunting, English and Kuku Yalanji - skills that served him well from the jungles of Far North Queensland to the battlefields of Europe.
Ion L. Idriess wrote about his adventures with Norman Baird and his brother Charles Baird in Men of the Jungle. It is most likely that the Bairds and Idriess first met when Idriess was hired by the Annan River Tin Mining Company in 1912 and the events as retold in Men of the Jungle happened at about this time.
On the second of August 1917, aged thirty, Norman Baird enlisted in the armed forces and was assigned to the 15th Battalion. He was awarded the British War Medal 1914-20 and the Victory Medal for his service during World War I.
Baird was well known in Far North Queensland and was respected by both his mother's and father's people. He was a leader and an advocate for the Kuku Yalanji people but his campaign to protect their rights brought him into conflict with the authorities...' (Source: http://www.yps.net.au/ (Sighted 21/04/10))
