Wettening Auralia

Historical novel set in Western Australia at Federation, with CY O’Connor and the Goldfields water scheme being centre stage. The foundation myth of the western state, the O’Connor tragedy is a story everyone in WA ‘sort of’ knows, retold here in compelling style. And a light is shone on the role of one intimidating individual whose role in the tragedy has been politely ignored for over a century.

A century turns. Australia’s western third enjoys an unprecedented minerals boom while the rest of the country and most of the world is in a deep depression. Thousands come west for the work, not usually intending to stay. The Premier – some call him the Emperor – firmly believes the good times will last forever, and spends big on rails, ports, everything.

Enter the engineer. His story is legend. A good man hounded to a tragic end in the shallow waters of a beach south of Fremantle.

We all know this story in the west, sort of. But somehow, we cannot recall the culprit. Was it parliament? Unscrupulous contractors? The newspapers? We recall there was some shame in it for us all. Were we, the people, responsible? If so, is this still our disposition? Would we again find someone to blame if the good times come to an end?

In this retelling of the CY O’Connor story, Peter Burke re-imagines the history of Australia’s western third. It is unlike the history of the rest of the island continent. A settlement intended for nice middle class folk, not convicts, which struggled for decades while the east boomed. And then came gold, for better and for worse, and everything in the west changed, forever.

Wettening Auralia offers an exquisite nineteen-course degustation menu for serious lovers of fine history. The Battle between Two Newspapers. The Coming of Federation. The Breakaway State of Auralia. The Six Hungry Families. The Rise of the Labour Movement. The Building of the World’s Longest Aqueduct.

There is the radical long-haired founder of the Sunday newspaper who looked the perfect villain and stands accused by historians of writing the libellous articles which triggered the engineer’s death. But did not.

And then there is Tommy, who for some mysterious reason never gets accused of it. But almost certainly did. pp. 328 illusts First Edition Signed by Author #0219/0420/0820