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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
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'At the age of fifteen Charlie left his home in Bendigo and signed on as a drover with Nat Buchanan. Two years later he was a key man on one of Australia's greatest cattle drives - the Durack family's two-year journey from Cooper's Creek, Queensland - to the Kimberley.
'Drawing on Charlie’s largely unknown story, and filling in the gaps with fiction, the author has created a novel unique in Australian literature. An unprecedented adventure, and a passionate love story – Whistler's Bones is both a celebration of the good things in the settlement of Northern Australia – and a damning indictment of the bad.' (Publication Summary)
Notes
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Author's Note
This is a work of fiction blended with fact. The story is based on the life of drover, stockman and adventurer Charlie Gaunt, who, as an old man in the 1930s, wrote of his experiences in the Northern Standard Newspaper. Yet, there were many gaps. He rarely mentioned his feelings or anything of his personal life. In this novel I have attempted to build him into a complete person, with flaws, desires, relationships and regrets.I have presented this world of the late 1800s, including the often brutal frontier, in the way Charlie saw and experienced it. The book therefore contains words, scenes and descriptions that readers may find confronting. Indigenous people, particularly those with links to Northern Australia, should read with care. Excerpts from Charlie's articles at the beginning of chapters are his own words as originally written, only minor punctuation has been changed. In some places in the novel, usually dialogue, I've used a line or two verbatim from Charlie's articles, as altering them seemed pointless.
I am indebted to many people who helped with the research and production of this novel. Lesley Steabler, Steve Russell, Rob and Claudia West, Lyn and Stewart Dundas, the welcoming crew at Broadmere Station, Brian Cook, Bob Barron, my wife Catriona, sons Daly and James and all my friends and family. Thanks most of all to the loyal readers who make the long hours of research and writing worthwhile.
Greg Barron, October 2017
