Shadow of the Osprey (48 page)

O
n a clipper in the southern oceans west of South Africa, a young boy stood at the railing of the sailing ship and watched the big seas rolling off the graceful bow. The clipper rose and plunged into the wave troughs, and the night wind ruffled Patrick Duffy’s thick curly hair. He felt the sting of the waves lash his face with hissing salt spray and felt so alone in the dark.

He did not understand the irresistible urge to go above decks in the stormy night. All he knew was that a woman’s voice had called to him, like a soft whisper in his mind, from across the ocean. It was not a voice others could hear – and it was not a voice that he had heard before. He stood and stared into the howling wind that strained at the mass of canvas above his head, and moaned through the rigging with the voices of the lonely and desolate places of the spirit.

Lady Enid woke with alarm to find Patrick gone from the cabin. In her concern she collared a member of the crew to locate the young boy and the surly crewman reluctantly went in search of Patrick. He had a fair idea where the boy might be. He had seen a tall and handsome young fellow make his way above decks a short time earlier, and reassured the distressed woman that he would go and bring him safely below. It was not a good night to be above decks, he grumbled as he left Enid alone in her cabin.

He found Patrick standing at the bow of the clipper, deeply immersed in his thoughts. The young man could not know that the sailing ship was in the exact same waters where many years before his birth, Elizabeth Duffy, his paternal grandmother, had been buried at sea. Above the tortured creaking of the ship’s timbers, and in the wailing of the winds of the southern ocean, he heard his name called. ‘Father!’ he answered without thinking. But when he turned, he saw only a crewman who had come to fetch him below, on Lady Enid’s instructions.

Why had he used the word ‘father’, Patrick pondered, as he followed the crewman below. It was just a word that came naturally to his lips. At least he knew who his real father was. Uncle Daniel and Max had told him all about the legendary Michael Duffy. And Lady Enid had told him of how his father had died bravely fighting the Maori warriors in the Land of the Long White Cloud. She had also told him to forget the past. It was a place of ghosts, she had said.

Patrick paused at the hatchway leading down to the lower decks and cast a last look at the storm raging in the night. He shuddered, not from the cold, but from a strange feeling that the ghosts of his past were all around him in the dark.

‘C’mon boy,’ the crewman growled. ‘Get below before her ladyship has my hide.’ Patrick turned away from the storm and followed. Before him was a life of unimaginable power and wealth. He had been assured of that by his Uncle Daniel and Lady Enid. But right at that moment he would rather have known his mother and father.

L
ittle known to many Australians, the Palmer River goldfields of our northern frontier were the setting for some of the bloodiest scenes in Australian history. We will never really know how many people died as a result of murder, fever, hunger, heat stroke, hostile native actions and just sheer exhaustion. Every form of death stalked those who went in search of the elusive fortune.

But probably the people who suffered the most were the Aboriginal tribes of the region. Courageous defenders of their traditional lands, they gave their lives in a hopeless guerilla war over many years as their fighting technology was no match for that of the European invaders.

If the legendary Wentworth D’Arcy Uhr could be likened to the famous lawmen of the American Wild West, then the adventurer Christie Palmerston must have things in common with America’s own Kit Carson. Christie’s involvement with Michael Duffy is purely a fiction in this novel but his subsequent life as an explorer of the far northern rainforests is well entrenched in the Kit Carson tradition. A colourful and enigmatic man whose real life played like a Hollywood epic, the most comprehensive coverage of his life I came across in my research can be found in Paul Savage’s work
Christie Palmerston – Explorer
.

But to mention Christie also warrants a mention of another real character mentioned in passing in the novel. In September 1873 James Venture Mulligan posted his famous notice in the little North Queensland frontier town of Georgetown . . .
J.V. Mulligan reports discovery of payable gold on the Palmer River. Those interested may inspect at this office the 102 ozs. he has brought back
. The rest is history.

It is interesting to note that in a skirmish at Round Mountain some months earlier, Palmerston and Mulligan, whilst prospecting with others, were speared in a furious fight with the northern tribesmen. Mulligan’s life and times are no less colourful than Palmerston’s.

And on the subject of gold, Kate’s hunch about Ironstone Mountain would prove to be beyond anyone’s expectation. It was later renamed Mount Morgan and turned out to be one of the richest gold and silver mines of the 1880s anywhere in the world.

Sadly, French Charley’s, which was a real establishment in the days of the Palmer goldfields, is long gone. But Cooktown remains and is well worth a visit from the intrepid tourist.

The German attempts to annex the giant island of Papua New Guinea are a work of fiction in this novel. However, a well-planned and executed covert operation a few years later based out of Sydney, succeeded in an annexation of the northern sections of the island and its surrounding island groups. The subject has provided a real canvas for the third book in this trilogy.
Shadow of the Osprey
is set against the years 1884/5 when the Germans succeeded in hoisting the Imperial eagle on New Guinean soil.

As for the rest of the historical backdrop, I again pay tribute and acknowledge the works of Glenville Pike and Hector Holthouse, whose considerable and colourful works provided the paint for the story told in this novel.

Peter Watt

The Silent Frontier

Lachlan, John and Phoebe MacDonald, three young children tragically separated after the massacre at the Ballarat goldfields, try to make their way in a world filled with poverty and war.

John is determined to find his lost siblings and meanwhile works hard to make a name for himself. A business partnership leads to riches and rewards that he never dreamed of.

Lachlan has always known what it is to struggle for survival. But even a life of bare knuckle fighting and destitution cannot prepare him for the war he finds himself in against the Maori of New Zealand, nor the feelings he has for his commanding Officer’s sister.

Phoebe barely remembers what it is to have a family and yearns for a love that will make her feel complete, and a home to call her own.

Three tales of courage, hope and forbidden love set against the backdrop of the New Zealand Maori wars and an emerging Australian nation.

Peter Watt

Eden

Jack Kelly and Paul Mann have survived one world war – will they survive another? When the Japanese threaten to invade the Pacific the two men know that they must do everything in their power to protect their country, and their loved ones from an ambitious and merciless enemy.

Lukas Kelly and Karl Mann are like brothers – just like their fathers – and both are determined to do their part for the Australian cause. While Karl works undercover in espionage, Lukas trains to be a pilot. The two men have also inherited their father’s passionate natures, and romantic entanglements raise the stakes even further.

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
Papua.