Percy Clarke (International) assertion Percy Clarke i(A43524 works by)
Gender: Male
Visitor assertion Arrived in Australia: 1884 Departed from Australia: ca. 1885-1886
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 2 y separately published work icon The Valley Council; Or, Leaves from the Journal of Thomas Bateman of Canbelego Station, N.S.W. Percy Clarke , London : Sampson Low, Marston , 1891 Z1212988 1891 single work novel science fiction adventure An exploration mystery and adventure story, which also concerns a lost race in the Australian outback, the The Valley Council begins with the murder of a settler and the disappearance of his wife, Annette. The other settlers mistakenly blame and hang three aboriginals before it comes to light that the narrator's second cousin, Jeremy Bateman had run off into the bush with the woman. With the aid of a guide, John Pettie Blackie, a small party of settlers begin an expedition into the wilds to bring the lovers to justice, and in the process come upon a hitherto unknown and unfriendly civilisation living in a valley protected by a seemingly impassable and well-guarded formation of rocks. The settlers attempt to find a way in but are repeatedly repelled by booby-traps, futuristic mechanisms, poison gasses and warriors in chain mail.

Bateman is later discovered tied up and exposed to the elements - his punishment for breaking one of the community's laws. It is then that they find out that Blackie murdered Annette's husband. Blackie, one of a small group of people to be in contact with the community, then persuaded them to follow him to the hidden valley. Through Bateman the party also find out more about the lost civilisation. Established 150 years ago by British colonialists who desired a socialist republic, everything is owned and run by the 'state,' and in a manner which Everett Bleiler describes as being 'regulated in a brutal and capricious manner' (p.140).

When the narrator is captured he is given a choice to live with the people and abide by their laws of face death. Choosing life he is now able to meet up with Annette and together they eventually escape. But not before he demonstrates 'a genius for exploiting endless legal technicalities within the culture.' It is also a strategy which allows him to subvert the Council and set up an informal underground organisation (Bleiler p.141). After having made their escape, which includes a shoot out and the death of several Council officials, the narrator and Annette reach civilisation. Sometime later he gets word from a friend in the valley that the laws and customs have since been changed to more rational ones.

The science fiction elements, introduced into the narrative through descriptions of the community's development of technology, also include electric cars and an advanced railroad.

[Source: Everett Bleiler, Science Fiction: The Early Years (1990), pp.140-141]
1 3 y separately published work icon Three Diggers : A Tale of the Australian 'Fifties Percy Clarke , London : Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington , 1889 Z806966 1889 single work Based on real events on the Australian goldfields in the 1850s, Three Diggers chronicles the adventures of three gold prospectors caught up in the civil unrest in Victoria in 1854.
1 1 y separately published work icon The 'New Chum' in Australia, or The Scenery, Life, and Manners of Australians in Town and Country Percy Clarke , London : J. S. Virtue , 1886 Z806963 1886 single work autobiography travel Reminiscences of the author's travels throughout urban and rural Australia from 1884. The original sketches used to illustrate the book are held by the National Library of Australia.
X