Drums of Mer is a 1933 Australian novel by Ion Idriess set in the Torres Strait in present-day Queensland, Australia.

"[9] The Argus thought "Mr Idriess his seized upon the most colourful aspects of this decayed civilisation before it has been completely lost to livIng memory and has dramatised them with his uncanny gift for realistic narrative writing.

They are not the faults of a labored search for expressive phrases, but rather the evi dence of an Imagination that hastens enthusiastically ahead of the facts marshalled in long, painstaking historical research.

"[11] The Australian Women's Weekly wrote that the book "though excellent reading, just falls short of the high standard one is beginning to expect from this writer and it misses, for lack of careful sub-editing.

[13] Sandy Harbutt planned to make a film version of it in the late 1970s with his then-wife Helen Morse as associate producer.

[14] In October 1977 Harbutt was reportedly writing a script in the New Hebridies and hoped to start filming in April 1978.