Read The Silent Frontier Online
Authors: Peter Watt
The Silent Frontier (32 page)
AUTHOR’S
NOTES
N
ever before or since has an Australian involvement with New Zealand been more significant than when 2500 Australian recruits crossed the Tasman to fight in the Waikato campaign. The men recruited by Colonel Pitt were accompanied by around 1000 women and children, although the majority of the recruits were single men. I have met New Zealanders who can trace their roots back to those Australian soldiers who took up land after their service to become Kiwi citizens. Years later, Australian and New Zealand soldiers and sailors would fight side by side in the South African war at the turn of the century. Fourteen years after that a combined force became known as the ANZACs.
It is interesting to note that the Waikato campaign is not acknowledged as an Australian feat of arms; most military historians view the volunteers as acting more in the
mercenary soldier role, unlike the New South Welshmen who later fought in the Suakin campaign of the 1880s.
It was not my intention to write about the politics of the land wars of New Zealand, which had flared sporadically from 1848 to the last shots being fired in 1916. This has been done by many fine New Zealand historians.
During the course of my research I came across a wonderful collection of DVDs which comprehensively cover the New Zealand wars. I would recommend the set to anyone with an interest in military strategy. The New Zealand historian, James Belich has written and produced through Landmark Productions this thoroughly entertaining and informative series entitled
The New Zealand Wars. A
search of the Internet will lead those interested to the distributors.
Of all the colonial wars the British army faced in the 19th century, the war against the Maori people was not one that they could claim as a victory. The same army that could take on the might of the African armies and defeat them found itself in a guerrilla war against a people of incredible courage and intelligence. At the time Maori entrenchments were easily more sophisticated than those used in the American Civil War. It is ironic that it was the Maori who paved the way for a new form of deadly defence to be seen again in 1914. Sadly, the lesson to the British army had been forgotten and would cost them the loss of many good men in the trenches.
Amongst some of the many sources used, I must single out a few: Leonard Barton’s
Australians in the Waikato War: 1863-1864,
Library of Australian History, Sydney: 1979; Neil Finlay’s
Sacred Soil: Images and Stories of the New Zealand Wars,
Random House NZ, Auckland: 1998; and James Belich’s
The New Zealand Wars,
Penguin Books, Auckland: 1988. In these books I was able to read actual eye-witness
accounts of the battles described. I have attempted to place my fictional characters in these real events as accurately as possible.
For readers interested in the events of the 1854 Eureka stockade I recommend Bob O’Brien’s
Massacre at Eureka: The Untold Story,
Australian Scholarly Publishing, Kew: 1992.
An interesting fact of history pertinent to this novel is that it was indeed a little known and unsung Australian who helped pioneer the system of refrigeration. The use that my characters have put the invention to in the novel is purely fictional, however, although other references to its use are fact. Our beer was chilled by the new invention!
Lachlan MacDonald’s role as an explorer on the Queensland frontier was heavily inspired by the almost forgotten true-life character of Christie Palmerston. The best source about this remarkable man’s life is Paul Savage’s
Christie Palmerston: Explorer,
James Cook University, Townsville: 1992. The fictional incident with Lachlan being blinded is based on an event that happened to Palmerston, as recorded in his diaries.
As for further stories of our colourful Queensland frontier I continue to recommend the books by Hector Holthouse and Glenville Pike.
Black Mountain is a real place and its sinister reputation is well deserved. Many have visited it over the years never to be seen again. It lies just south of Cooktown in the Black Mountain National Park.
A postscript to the story here is that General Cameron eventually resigned in protest at what he saw as an unjust war against the Maori people. The Von was killed in an attack on a Maori pa in 1868. Major Charles Heaphy, a New Zealander, won that country’s first Victoria Cross in recognition of saving a soldier’s life on the banks of the Manapiko Paver in 1864.
MORE BESTSELLING FICTION AVAILABLE FROM PAN MACMILLAN
Peter Watt
Cry of the Curlew
I will tell you a story about two whitefella families who believed in the ancestor spirits. One family was called Macintosh and the other family was called Duffy . . .
Squatter Donald Macintosh little realises what chain of events he is setting in motion when he orders the violent dispersal of the Nerambura tribe on his property, Glen View. Unwitting witnesses to the barbaric exercise are bullock teamsters Patrick Duffy and his son Tom.
Meanwhile, in thriving Sydney Town, Michael Duffy and Fiona Macintosh are completely unaware of the cataclysmic events overtaking their fathers in the colony of Queensland. They have caught each other’s eye during an outing to Manly Village. A storm during the ferry trip home is but a small portent of what is to follow . . . From this day forward, the Duffys and the Macintoshes are inextricably linked. Their paths cross in love, death and revenge as both families fight to tame the wild frontier of Australia’s north country.
Spanning the middle years of the nineteenth century,
Cry of the Curlew
is a groundbreaking novel of Australian history. Confronting, erotic, graphic but above all a compelling adventure, Peter Watt is an exceptional talent.
Peter Watt
Shadow of the Osprey
On a Yankee clipper bound for Sydney harbour the mysterious Michael O’Flynn is watched closely by a man working undercover for Her Majesty’s government. O’Flynn has a dangerous mission to undertake . . . and old scores to settle.
Twelve years have passed since the murderous event which inextricably linked the destinies of two families, the Macintoshes and the Duffys. The curse which lingers after the violent 1862 dispersal of the Nerambura tribe has created passions which divide them in hate and join them in forbidden love.
Shadow of the Osprey,
the sequel to the best selling
Cry of the Curlew,
is a riveting tale that reaches from the boardrooms and backstreets of Sydney to beyond the rugged Queensland frontier and the dangerous waters of the Coral Sea. Powerful and brilliantly told,
Shadow of the Osprey
confirms the exceptional talent of master storyteller Peter Watt.
Peter Watt
Flight of the Eagle
No-one is left untouched by the dreadful curse which haunts two families, inextricably linking them together in love, death and revenge.
Captain Patrick Duffy is a man divided between the family of his father, Irish Catholic soldier of fortune Michael Duffy and his adoring, scheming maternal grandmother, Enid Macintosh. Visiting the village of his Irish forbears on a quest to uncover the secrets surrounding his birth, he is beguiled by the beautiful, mysterious Catherine Fitzgerald.
On the rugged Queensland frontier Native Mounted Police trooper Peter Duffy is torn between his duty, the blood of his mother’s people – the Nerambura tribe – and a predestined deadly duel with Gordon James, the love of his sister Sarah.
From the battlefields of the Sudan, to colonial Sydney and the Queensland outback,
Flight of the Eagle
is a stunning addition to the series featuring the bestselling
Cry of the Curlew
and
Shadow of the Osprey,
with master storyteller Peter Watt at the height of his powers.
Peter Watt
To Chase the Storm
When Major Patrick Duffy’s beautiful wife Catherine leaves him for another, returning to her native Ireland, Patrick’s broken heart propels him out of the Sydney Macintosh home and into yet another bloody war. However the battlefields of Africa hold more than nightmarish terrors and unspeakable conditions for Patrick they bring him in contact with one he thought long dead and lost to him.
Back in Australia, the mysterious Michael O’Flynn mentors Patrick’s youngest son, Alex, and at his grandmother’s request takes him on a journey to their Queensland property, Glen View. But will the terrible curse that has inextricably linked the Duffys and Macintoshes for generations ensure that no true happiness can ever come to them? So much seems to depend on Wallarie, the last warrior of the Nerambura tribe, whose mere name evokes a legend approaching myth.
Through the dawn of a new century in a now federated nation,
To Chase the Storm
charts an explosive tale of love and loss, from South Africa to Palestine, from Townsville to the green hills of Ireland, and to the more sinister politics that lurk behind them. By public demand, master storyteller Peter Watt returns to his much-loved series following on from the bestselling
Cry of the Curlew, Shadow of the Osprey
and
Flight of the Eagle.
Peter Watt
Papua
Two men, sworn enemies, come face to face on the battlefields of France. When Jack Kelly, a captain in the Australian army, shows compassion towards his prisoner Paul Mann, a brave and high-ranking German officer, an unexpected bond is formed. But neither could imagine how their pasts and futures would become inextricably linked by one place: Papua.
The Great War is finally over and both soldiers return to their once familiar lives, only to find that in their absence events have changed their respective worlds forever. In Australia, Jack is suddenly alone with a son he does not know and a future filled with uncertainty, while the photograph of a beautiful German woman he has never met fills his thoughts. Meanwhile, the Germany that Paul had fought for is vanishing under the influence of an ambitious young man called Adolf Hitler, and he fears for the future of his family.
A new beginning beckons them both in a beautiful but dangerous land where rivers of gold are as legendary as the fearless, cannibalistic tribes, and where fortunes can be made and lost as quickly as life: Papua.
A powerful novel from the author of
Cry of the Curlew, Shadow of the Osprey, Flight of the Eagle
and
To Chase the Storm.
Peter Watt
Eden
Jack Kelly and Paul Mann have survived one world war – will they survive another? When the Japanese threaten to invade the Pacific the two men know that they must do everything in their power to protect their country, and their loved ones from an ambitious and merciless enemy.
Lukas Kelly and Karl Mann are like brothers – just like their fathers – and both are determined to do their part for the Australian cause. While Karl works undercover in espionage, Lukas trains to be a pilot. The two men have also inherited their father’s passionate natures, and romantic entanglements raise the stakes even further.
Four men, with ties closer than blood fight to hold on to love, and a world that is gradually disappearing. When the war finally explodes terrible tragedies, courageous deeds and enduring friendships will change their lives forever.
A new war, a new generation and an old enemy meet in this thrilling and poignant novel of love, loss and hope written by the bestselling author of
Papua.
