A place of endless bright colours which fuse in my mind into a kaleidoscope.
A remembered story of my family's life in a distant world, on aboriginal land in Australia's Northern Territory, a place like remote Canada or Alaska, where few others go. It is the landscape of Crocodile Dundee, myriad hues of billabongs, open grass plains, sunlit hills and purple storms, peopled by its many coloured children.
In a changing world a missionary family and aboriginal community became part of modern Australia over 50 years.
What is it about the Northern Territory that fascinates? If I mention its name in conversation and people stop to listen.
Why, for nearly 200 years, has it drawn people to come, stay longer than they imagined and often, never leave?
This our family's story, growing amongst the people, animals and places and colours of this this strange land, within an aboriginal community going through huge changes; citizenship, alcohol, uranium mining, land rights, outstation development, and community self-management.
The role of my father in road transport including building a crossing of the East Alligator River, developing outstations for aboriginal communities, learning to fly on missionary wages and establishing an aviation service along with assisting the aboriginal peoples of this land to gain royalties from mining is a story that deserves to be told as a major part of NT history. Along with his tireless work the contribution of many others to the making of the Northern Territory is the fabric of this story.
It also tells of my mother and fathers' lives and Christian beliefs which motivated their contribution to this change.
It is a story of my memories and love for this remote and beautiful place, in which I lived as a child then worked as an adult and of many NT characters who gave me the memories. It is also the story of me working as an adult across many parts of the NT and about the hardy, outlandish characters that inhabit this place.
It also tells of my own experience of surviving attack by a large crocodile in a remote swamp
It provides a foundation for my novels in the Crocodile Spirit Dreaming Series. The places in these books are the places in which I lived and worked and many of the stories came little changed from people I knew.
A remembered story of my family's life in a distant world, on aboriginal land in Australia's Northern Territory, a place like remote Canada or Alaska, where few others go. It is the landscape of Crocodile Dundee, myriad hues of billabongs, open grass plains, sunlit hills and purple storms, peopled by its many coloured children.
In a changing world a missionary family and aboriginal community became part of modern Australia over 50 years.
What is it about the Northern Territory that fascinates? If I mention its name in conversation and people stop to listen.
Why, for nearly 200 years, has it drawn people to come, stay longer than they imagined and often, never leave?
This our family's story, growing amongst the people, animals and places and colours of this this strange land, within an aboriginal community going through huge changes; citizenship, alcohol, uranium mining, land rights, outstation development, and community self-management.
The role of my father in road transport including building a crossing of the East Alligator River, developing outstations for aboriginal communities, learning to fly on missionary wages and establishing an aviation service along with assisting the aboriginal peoples of this land to gain royalties from mining is a story that deserves to be told as a major part of NT history. Along with his tireless work the contribution of many others to the making of the Northern Territory is the fabric of this story.
It also tells of my mother and fathers' lives and Christian beliefs which motivated their contribution to this change.
It is a story of my memories and love for this remote and beautiful place, in which I lived as a child then worked as an adult and of many NT characters who gave me the memories. It is also the story of me working as an adult across many parts of the NT and about the hardy, outlandish characters that inhabit this place.
It also tells of my own experience of surviving attack by a large crocodile in a remote swamp
It provides a foundation for my novels in the Crocodile Spirit Dreaming Series. The places in these books are the places in which I lived and worked and many of the stories came little changed from people I knew.
Used availability for Graham Wilson's Kaleidoscope