Robert Beilby Robert Beilby i(A73389 works by)
Also writes as: King Cole
Gender: Male
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1 After the Boom : a Romance of Life in Victoria Robert Beilby , 1895-1896 single work short story Set in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda and a small mining settlement in the Victorian bush after the Crash. A wealthy family, the Wiltons, are forced out of their elegant house by the bank crash. Mr Wilton and his son Edwin, together with unemployed bricklayer Robert Angel go to the goldfields to try and restore their fortunes. Angel is the fiancee of Wilton's maid Matty, he saves pretty roving Grace Wilton from dorwning at St Kilda and later rescues Mr Wilton from a mining cave-in. Mrs Wilton and Blanche resent the family's fallen fortunes and are ashamed of father and brother prospecting - but Mrs Wilton learsn to value Mr Wilotn in absentia. Meanwhile Grave falls for Frank Arnott, nephew of the family's new friends Col and Mrs Lawrence. The Wilton men and Angel go prospecting with him and all strike it rich. Edwin falls in love with the beautiful Miriam Gray but she is engaged by her father's wish to philandering doctor Eustace Ambrose. An old drunken miner murders the doctor in revenge for his wife's death years before; an old maid driven to drink and bad temper by his desertion of her in her youth after a false marriage is redeemed by Mrs Lawrence. Happiness eventually comes to all in this well-written tale. Discussion of taxation in Vicotria, Civil Service retrenchment, free trade and protectionism, labour rights, aid to the unemployed, poverty, crime. (PB)
1 Better Rub Than Rust King Cole , 1881 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , February vol. 16 no. 189 1881; (p. 313-317) An honest youth resolves to take up manual labour rather than rust with his status-proud mother and sister in Melbourne after his father dies. He takes a job at a farm near Lilydale and quickly gains promotion and the love of his manager's daughter. She will not marry him until the mystery shrouding her father's name is cleared ... Subject and locale more interesting than style. Mystery is the usual false imputation of murder in Ireland in the manager's youth. (PB)
1 Pure as a Lily King Cole , 1880 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , March vol. 15 no. 178 1880; (p. 375-378) Romance of Sydney and Melbourne. Alice Mervyn is called away from her Sydney girls' school to see her dying father in Melbourne. She arrives too late and flees her step-mother's plot to marry her to an unscrupulous friend. She falls in love with and marries one of her rescuers, eventually winning his wealthy squatters father's approval. Slight. (PB).
1 All For Love King Cole , 1879 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , April vol. 14 no. 167 1879; (p. 396-397) Set in Scarborough, Yorkshire and the Queensland outback. Lovers parted by a rival's plot are reunited through his rescue and recovery from an Aboriginal spearing. (PB)
1 Good for Evil King Cole , 1879 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , December vol. 15 no. 175 1879; (p. 203-205) Sketchy unlikely romance of a poor English miner/farmer in Victoria who - urged by his daughter - saves the life of the man who cheated him in England. The man returns the money and they all sail for England, the two young people falling in love, and the father drowning in the shipwreck from which the daughter is saved. (PB)
1 Wattle Blossoms King Cole , 1879 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , September vol. 15 no. 172 1879; (p. 35-37) A widower's intrigues separates the governess he covets from the man she loves but on his deathbed he reveals the truth, and she is discovered teaching school near Melbourne. Sketchily written. (PB)
1 May King Cole , 1878 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , April vol. 13 no. 155 1878; (p. 418-419) An English farmer adopts a little foundling discovered under a springtime hedge. On her wedding day she discovers her true mother - the squire's daughter. Unexceptional. (PB).
1 Old Highett's Assistant King Cole , 1878- single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , March vol. 13 no. 154 (p. 364-365) Slight romance set in Windsor mansion on the banks of the Thames; a new gardener's assistant is ultimately revealed to be a beautiful but poverty-stricken girl in boy's disguise. (PB).
1 Fred Arden's Fate King Cole , 1877 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , September vol. 13 no. 148 1877; (p. 29-30) A new chum, a Melbourne drapery salesman finds friendship and romance by rescuing a young blind girl at Brighton Beach's Red Bluff. (PB)
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