Part 20 (2/2)
Everyone drank.
Castlemaine Post, Express edition, 12 January 1998.
Heritage workers who were cutting the gra.s.s at the Old Bark Hut heritage site were alarmed when one of their mowers fell into an unmarked mine shaft on Sat.u.r.day. They called in the local emergency services to retrieve the mower. At the bottom of the shaft, which was more than ten metres deep, shocked workers found the body of a man. Sergeant Hutton called in the local historical society when it became clear that the body had been there for at least fifty years. The man had been saponified, a condition which occurs when the stearates in body fat turn to a soapy substance called adipocere. This usually happens in cold water. He was very well preserved. From the papers in his pocket, the man seems to have been called Joseph Smith. (Continued on page 5...)
AUTHOR'S NOTE.
This is a work of fiction. I have used Castlemaine as a base for it but it is not, and cannot be, accurate to a centimetre. I have taken liberties with names and places. This is what a novel does. I have tried to be as accurate as I possibly could with the a.s.sistance of some very knowledgeable people. But if you find some small error and feel the need to tell me that I have got it wrong, please think again. Anyone else is welcome to email me on and if you would like to duplicate my research, here are my sources.
Bibliography.
Adc.o.c.k, WE, Gold Rushes of the Fifties Poppet Head Press, Glen Waverley, 1982 Bradfield, Raymond, Castlemaine: A Golden Harvest Lowden Printing Castlemaine Mail, Kilmore, 1972 --, Campbells Creek Castlemaine Mail, Castlemaine, not dated (privately published) --, Unpublished Notes on the Chinese in Castlemaine, Castlemaine Historical Society archives Cannon, Michael, Who's Master? Who's Man? Australia in the Victorian Age: 1 Thomas Nelson Australia, Melbourne, 1971.
Chang, Julie (ed.), Chinese Cultures in the Diaspora National Endowment for Culture and Arts, Taiwan, 1997 Disher, Garry, Australia Then and Now Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1987 Evans, William (ed.), Diary of a Welsh Swagman, 18691894 Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977.
Fauchery, Antoine, Letters from a Miner in Australia, trans. AR Chisholm, Georgian House, Melbourne, 1965 Fawcett, Raymond, How Did They Live? Gawthorn Ltd, London, circa 1950 Filer, Joyce, Disease British Museum, London, 1995.
Gerritsen, Rupert, And Their Ghosts May Be Heard Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Perth, 1994 Gittins, Jean, The Diggers from China Quartet Books, Melbourne, 1981.
Goodman, David, Gold Seeking Victoria and California in the 1850s Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1994 Hocking, Geoff, Castlemaine from Camp to City, 18351900 Five Mile Press, Melbourne, 1994 Howitt, William, Land, Labour and Gold facsimile edition, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1972.
Joyce, Christopher and Stover, Eric, Witnesses from the Grave Grafton Press, London, 1993 Keesing, Nancy, The Golden Dream William Collins Australia, Sydney, 1974.
-- (ed.), Gold Fever Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1967 Kwan, Choi Wah, The Right Word in Cantonese The Commer-cial Press, Hong Kong, 1989.
McMillan, AR, The Pennyweight Kids Castlemaine Mail, Castlemaine, 1988 Morris, Wendy, A Guide to Maldon Currency Productions, Melbourne, 1984 Ni, Maos.h.i.+ng, PhD translator of Suwen, Neijing, The Yellow Emperor's Cla.s.sic of Medicine Shambala, Boston, 1995 O'Brien, Joanne and Kwok, Man Ho, Chinese Myths and Legends Arrow Books, London, 1990.
Pearl, Cyril, Wild Men of Sydney WH Allen and Co, London, 1958 Roberts, Charlotte and Manchester, Keith, The Archaeology of Disease Cornell University Press, New York, 1983.
Rolls, Eric, Sojourners University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1992 Sagazio, Celestina, Tour of the Pennyweight Flat Cemetery and the Maldon Cemetery National Trust, Melbourne, 1992 -- (ed.), Cemeteries: Our Heritage National Trust, Melbourne, 1992.
Shaw, George Bernard, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism Constable and Co, London, 1928 Sherer, John, The Gold-Finder of Australia Colonial Facsimiles, Penguin, Melbourne, 1973 Siug, Jong Ah, A Difficult Case, trans. Ruth Moore and John Tully, Jim Crow Press, Daylesford, 2000 Tun, Li-Ch'en, Annual Customs and Festivities in Peking, trans. Derk Bodde, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, 1965.
Waley, Arthur, Dear Monkey Bobbs-Merril Co, New York, 1973.
Wannan, Bill, Tell 'Em I Died Game Rigby Ltd, Sydney, 1963 Weir, David, The Water Margin WH Allen and Co, London, 1979.
Yutang, Lin, The Gay Genius William Heinemann Ltd, London, 1948 --, My Country and My People William Heinemann Ltd, London, 1936.
Maps and diagrams of Castlemaine and Melbourne.
National Trust Guide to Castlemaine Market Discovering the Mount Alexander Diggings, A Guidebook Mount Alexander Diggings Committee, 1999 Information for People Leaving Great Britain 1854 facsimile edition of the Colonization Circular issued by Her Majesty's Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners in May 1854, Macbeth Genealogical Books, Sydney, 1990
Mr Butler's Considering c.o.c.ktail.
1 part sweet vermouth 4 parts chilled orange juice dash of angostura bitters dash of lemon juice Combine and shake with crushed ice. Decorate with a twist of lemon peel.
Murder in Montparna.s.se.
Kerry Greenwood.
The divine Phryne Fisher returns to lead another dance of intrigue.
Seven Australian soldiers, carousing in Paris in 1918, unknow-ingly witness a murder and their presence has devastating consequences. Ten years later, two are dead . . . under very suspicious circ.u.mstances.
Phryne's wharfie mates, Bert and Cec, appeal to her for help. They were part of this group of soldiers in 1918 and they fear for their lives and for those of the other three men. It's only as Phryne delves into the investigation that she, too, remembers being in Montparna.s.se on that very same day.
While Phryne is occupied with memories of Montparna.s.se past and the race to outpace the murderer, she finds troubles of a different kind at home. Her lover, Lin Chung, is about to be married. And the effect this is having on her own usually peaceful household is disastrous.
'Phryne Fisher is young, wealthy, beautiful, smart, confident and independently minded . . . and she has a knack for solving murders when she is not sipping a strengthening c.o.c.ktail or planning another seduction.' -Australian's Review of Books ISBN 1 86508 806 4.
Away with the Fairies.
Kerry Greenwood.
Phryne Fisher - dangerous, pa.s.sionate, kind, clever and seductive. She drinks c.o.c.ktails, dances the tango, is the companion of wharfies, and is expert at conducting an elegant dalliance.
It's the 1920s in Melbourne and Phryne is asked to investigate the puzzling death of a famous author and ill.u.s.trator of fairy stories. To do so, Phryne takes a job within the women's magazine that employed the victim and finds herself enmeshed in her colleagues' deceptions.
But while Phryne is learning the ins and outs of magazine publis.h.i.+ng first hand, her personal life is thrown into chaos. Impatient for her lover Lin Chung's imminent return from a silk-buying expedition to China, she instead receives an unusual summons from Lin Chung's family followed by a series of mysterious a.s.saults and warnings.
'Snappy one-liners and the ability to fight like a wildcat are appealing in a central character.' -City Weekly ISBN 1 86508 489 1.
Death Before Wicket.
Kerry Greenwood.
The sa.s.sy Phryne Fisher sets the seamy side of Sydney alight in her tenth adventure.
Phryne Fisher has plans for her Sydney sojourn - a few days at the Test cricket, a little sightseeing and the Artist's Ball with an up-and-coming young modernist. But these plans begin to go awry when Phryne's maid discovers her thoroughly respectable sister has left her family for the murky nightlife of the Cross. And Phryne is definitely not the woman to say 'no' when two delightful young men come to her on bended knees, begging for her help in finding their friend innocent of theft. Phryne's plans for a simple day or two of pleasure are postponed for good.
It all sounds simple enough as Phryne sets investigations into motion, but when greed and fear are the motivating factors, people become ruthless and Phryne finds herself enmeshed in blackmail, secrets, lies and the dangerous influences of deep magic.
'Pure indulgence . . . a 1920s heroine for the 90s . . . a fast and elegant read.' -Who Weekly ISBN 1 74114 095 1.
Raisins and Almonds.
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