Cirrus@Austlit

Dedication: Dedicated to my father, P. R. Lane, who was an early pioneer of the Eastern goldfields.

Epigraph: The lure of gold - 'tis more than gold is worth -
Which leads men on to deeds or grand or ills,
Cuts misery and wretchedness o'er earth
While tyrant wealth its grasping coffer fills.

Author's note: Published in the year of the centenary of Western Australia, '...my object is to bring home to the minds of the younger generation something of the hardships and privations suffered by the early pioneers, and to help them realise the price paid by our fathers for that development and progress of which we today so proudly boast'.