AustLit

An exploration mystery and adventure story, which also concerns a lost race in the Australian outback, the The Valley Council begins with the murder of a settler and the disappearance of his wife, Annette. The other settlers mistakenly blame and hang three aboriginals before it comes to light that the narrator's second cousin, Jeremy Bateman had run off into the bush with the woman. With the aid of a guide, John Pettie Blackie, a small party of settlers begin an expedition into the wilds to bring the lovers to justice, and in the process come upon a hitherto unknown and unfriendly civilisation living in a valley protected by a seemingly impassable and well-guarded formation of rocks. The settlers attempt to find a way in but are repeatedly repelled by booby-traps, futuristic mechanisms, poison gasses and warriors in chain mail.

Bateman is later discovered tied up and exposed to the elements - his punishment for breaking one of the community's laws. It is then that they find out that Blackie murdered Annette's husband. Blackie, one of a small group of people to be in contact with the community, then persuaded them to follow him to the hidden valley. Through Bateman the party also find out more about the lost civilisation. Established 150 years ago by British colonialists who desired a socialist republic, everything is owned and run by the 'state,' and in a manner which Everett Bleiler describes as being 'regulated in a brutal and capricious manner' (p.140).

When the narrator is captured he is given a choice to live with the people and abide by their laws of face death. Choosing life he is now able to meet up with Annette and together they eventually escape. But not before he demonstrates 'a genius for exploiting endless legal technicalities within the culture.' It is also a strategy which allows him to subvert the Council and set up an informal underground organisation (Bleiler p.141). After having made their escape, which includes a shoot out and the death of several Council officials, the narrator and Annette reach civilisation. Sometime later he gets word from a friend in the valley that the laws and customs have since been changed to more rational ones.

The science fiction elements, introduced into the narrative through descriptions of the community's development of technology, also include electric cars and an advanced railroad.

[Source: Everett Bleiler, Science Fiction: The Early Years (1990), pp.140-141]