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'"Kinglake-350 to VKC. Urgent, do you read me? The fire's here now. God help us."
'Kinglake-350 is a masterpiece of writing about family, community, country life and what happens when a day of ultimate terror arrives. Adrian Hyland takes a dramatic and compelling sequence of events on that day and weaves them into a picture of universal significance and deep fascination.
'On 7 February 2009 Roger Wood was the police officer in charge of Kinglake, at the epicentre of the worst bushfire disaster in Australia's history, Black Saturday. As the firestorm engulfed the community, he risked his life, again and again, to try and save people.
'With the fire raging all around, he phoned home to warn his wife what was coming. She screamed that the fire had already hit their property. Then the line went dead.
'Black Saturday was a many-headed monster in whose wake stories of grief, heroism and desolation erupted all over the state of Victoria. This is a book about the monster, and the heroism of those who confronted it. (From the publisher's website.)
Notes
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Dedication: For the invisible heroes and for those who are still suffering.
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Epigraph: This awful catastrophe is not the end but the beginning. History does not end so. It is the way its chapters open. - St Augustine
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Epigraph:
Girls and Horses in the Fire
(Kinglake, 7 Feb 2009)
Nothing will come between them,
those girls and their horses;
not wind or rain, nor pillars of fire.
If a hand should flick a match
amongst leaves or trunks implode
with the weight of heat, or lightening
blast the wasted trees, still they'd run,
these girls, through conflagrations,
wreathed by flames and embers.
Girls who run towards horses in fire,
may you find your home in the equine stars:
Pegasus, Equuleus. Hush, sleep now.
Lisa Jacobson
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Next Time
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The Monthly , February no. 86 2013; (p. 40-43) -
Words of Great Worth
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 4 August 2012; (p. 30-31) This column comprises the judges' comments on the shortlisted works for the 2012 Age Book of the Year Award. (The list includes three titles, outside the scope of AustLit, by James Boyce, Paul Ham and Jane Gleeson-White.) -
The Storytelling Animal
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 23 - 24 June 2012; (p. 36) -
The Language of Catastrophe : Forgetting, Blaming and Bursting into Colour
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Griffith Review , Autumn no. 35 2012; (p. 51-67) -
Debris Obscures Story of Black Saturday
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 8 January 2012; (p. 7)
— Review of Kinglake-350 2011 single work prose
-
Coming through the Inferno
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 13 August 2011; (p. 28-29)
— Review of Kinglake-350 2011 single work prose -
Hellfire Recollection
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 20 August 2011; (p. 23, 26)
— Review of Kinglake-350 2011 single work prose -
Untitled
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 20 August 2011; (p. 26)
— Review of Kinglake-350 2011 single work prose -
Untitled
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: Viewpoint : On Books for Young Adults , Summer vol. 19 no. 4 2011; (p. 7)
— Review of Kinglake-350 2011 single work prose -
Debris Obscures Story of Black Saturday
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 8 January 2012; (p. 7)
— Review of Kinglake-350 2011 single work prose -
The Language of Catastrophe : Forgetting, Blaming and Bursting into Colour
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Griffith Review , Autumn no. 35 2012; (p. 51-67) -
The Storytelling Animal
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 23 - 24 June 2012; (p. 36) -
Words of Great Worth
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 4 August 2012; (p. 30-31) This column comprises the judges' comments on the shortlisted works for the 2012 Age Book of the Year Award. (The list includes three titles, outside the scope of AustLit, by James Boyce, Paul Ham and Jane Gleeson-White.) -
Next Time
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The Monthly , February no. 86 2013; (p. 40-43)
Awards
- 2012 winner 'The Nib': CAL Waverley Library Award for Literature Mark and Evette Moran Nib Award for Literature — The Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize
- 2012 shortlisted Mark and Evette Moran Nib Award for Literature
- 2012 shortlisted The Age Book of the Year Award — Non-Fiction Prize
- 2012 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Non-Fiction
- 2011 highly commended Western Australian Premier's Book Awards — Non-Fiction
- Kinglake, Whittlesea area, Melbourne Outer North, Melbourne, Victoria,
- 2009