Author's note : I have tried to piece together from diaries, letters, pilots' logs and the notes of John Watson in the Isle of Girls, some idea of the conditions of the early settlers of Rottnest Island. The people mentioned were real people. Bringing them to life was made possible by the above records - and a little imagination! They are now part of our history - and Rottnest Island their memorial - 'Carinya', 66 Bay View Terrace, Mossman Park, Western Australia, 1953.
Epigraph : They are not dead ; not even broken ; / Only their dust has gone back home to the earth ; / For they, the essential they, shall have rebirth / Wherever a word of them is spoken. - Mary Gilmore.
