The Silent Frontier (32 page)
Read The Silent Frontier Online
Authors: Peter Watt
AUTHOR’S
NOTES
N
ever before or since has an Australian involvement with New Zealand been more significant than when 2500 Australian recruits crossed the Tasman to fight in the Waikato campaign. The men recruited by Colonel Pitt were accompanied by around 1000 women and children, although the majority of the recruits were single men. I have met New Zealanders who can trace their roots back to those Australian soldiers who took up land after their service to become Kiwi citizens. Years later, Australian and New Zealand soldiers and sailors would fight side by side in the South African war at the turn of the century. Fourteen years after that a combined force became known as the ANZACs.
It is interesting to note that the Waikato campaign is not acknowledged as an Australian feat of arms; most military historians view the volunteers as acting more in the
mercenary soldier role, unlike the New South Welshmen who later fought in the Suakin campaign of the 1880s.
It was not my intention to write about the politics of the land wars of New Zealand, which had flared sporadically from 1848 to the last shots being fired in 1916. This has been done by many fine New Zealand historians.
During the course of my research I came across a wonderful collection of DVDs which comprehensively cover the New Zealand wars. I would recommend the set to anyone with an interest in military strategy. The New Zealand historian, James Belich has written and produced through Landmark Productions this thoroughly entertaining and informative series entitled
The New Zealand Wars. A
search of the Internet will lead those interested to the distributors.
Of all the colonial wars the British army faced in the 19th century, the war against the Maori people was not one that they could claim as a victory. The same army that could take on the might of the African armies and defeat them found itself in a guerrilla war against a people of incredible courage and intelligence. At the time Maori entrenchments were easily more sophisticated than those used in the American Civil War. It is ironic that it was the Maori who paved the way for a new form of deadly defence to be seen again in 1914. Sadly, the lesson to the British army had been forgotten and would cost them the loss of many good men in the trenches.
Amongst some of the many sources used, I must single out a few: Leonard Barton’s
Australians in the Waikato War: 1863-1864,
Library of Australian History, Sydney: 1979; Neil Finlay’s
Sacred Soil: Images and Stories of the New Zealand Wars,
Random House NZ, Auckland: 1998; and James Belich’s
The New Zealand Wars,
Penguin Books, Auckland: 1988. In these books I was able to read actual eye-witness
accounts of the battles described. I have attempted to place my fictional characters in these real events as accurately as possible.
For readers interested in the events of the 1854 Eureka stockade I recommend Bob O’Brien’s
Massacre at Eureka: The Untold Story,
Australian Scholarly Publishing, Kew: 1992.
An interesting fact of history pertinent to this novel is that it was indeed a little known and unsung Australian who helped pioneer the system of refrigeration. The use that my characters have put the invention to in the novel is purely fictional, however, although other references to its use are fact. Our beer was chilled by the new invention!
Lachlan MacDonald’s role as an explorer on the Queensland frontier was heavily inspired by the almost forgotten true-life character of Christie Palmerston. The best source about this remarkable man’s life is Paul Savage’s
Christie Palmerston: Explorer,
James Cook University, Townsville: 1992. The fictional incident with Lachlan being blinded is based on an event that happened to Palmerston, as recorded in his diaries.
As for further stories of our colourful Queensland frontier I continue to recommend the books by Hector Holthouse and Glenville Pike.
Black Mountain is a real place and its sinister reputation is well deserved. Many have visited it over the years never to be seen again. It lies just south of Cooktown in the Black Mountain National Park.
A postscript to the story here is that General Cameron eventually resigned in protest at what he saw as an unjust war against the Maori people. The Von was killed in an attack on a Maori pa in 1868. Major Charles Heaphy, a New Zealander, won that country’s first Victoria Cross in recognition of saving a soldier’s life on the banks of the Manapiko Paver in 1864.
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Four men, with ties closer than blood fight to hold on to love, and a world that is gradually disappearing. When the war finally explodes terrible tragedies, courageous deeds and enduring friendships will change their lives forever.
A new war, a new generation and an old enemy meet in this thrilling and poignant novel of love, loss and hope written by the bestselling author of
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