'Charlie Gaunt arrived in the Northern Territory in 1878 as a young teenager. His adventurous life there and in NQ is detailed with many bloody meetings with the tribesmen.
'Pearling, prospecting, soldiering, tall ships, dog musher, hobo, ranch manager, customs officer were some of the occupations of an adventurous life in the Boer War, Alaska, Nevada & USA generally, Mexico, China, Trinidad, British Guiana, Burma., etc. He died in Brisbane in 1938.' (Publication summary)
Whistler's Bones : A Novel of the Australian Frontier
Haymarket
:
Stories of Oz Publishing
,
2017
12795847
2017
single work
novel
historical fiction
'At the age of fifteen Charlie left his home in Bendigo and signed on as a drover with Nat Buchanan. Two years later he was a key man on one of Australia's greatest cattle drives - the Durack family's two-year journey from Cooper's Creek, Queensland - to the Kimberley.
'Drawing on Charlie’s largely unknown story, and filling in the gaps with fiction, the author has created a novel unique in Australian literature. An unprecedented adventure, and a passionate love story – Whistler's Bones is both a celebration of the good things in the settlement of Northern Australia – and a damning indictment of the bad.' (Publication Summary)
