Stand Up and Cheer

by Loretta Re

  Bocker – old Australian schoolboy slang for a knuckle punch on the upper arm

  Box brownie – a popular early camera that was shaped like a box

  Burke and Wills – nineteenth-century explorers who died in the desert attempting to cross Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north

  Bushrangers – an old Australian name for outlaws. Ned Kelly and his gang, the most famous of the bushrangers, lived in the countryside south of Albury

  Dray – a cart without sides

  Fair dinkum – Australian slang for true or genuine

  Ham radio – the popular name for amateur radio. A ‘ham’ was the person who operated in.

  Larrikin – a mischievous young person Mac – short for macintosh, an old name for a raincoat.

  Mallee bull – ‘strong as a mallee bull’ is a colloquial saying, meaning very strong. Named after the semi-arid areas called the mallee

  Mildenhall – the Royal Air Force station near the town of Mildenhall in England

  Susso – Australian slang term for sustenance payments, or welfare benefits paid during the Depression to the unemployed

  Taw – a flat stone thrown into hopscotch squares drawn on the ground

  Vegemite – a salty black breakfast spread loved by Australian children

  Wellies – short for Wellington boots, an earlier name for gumboots

  Yabby – a small freshwater crayfish

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Many people assisted in the preparation of this book. Arthur Newnham junior will ingly shared recollections of his father’s role in the rescue of the Uiver. I owe special thanks to the efforts of Chris Peters in the translation of Captain Parmentier’s memoir In Drie Dagen Naar Australië from Dutch into English and Michael Gardiner for his valuable information about ham radio. The great Australian adventurer, Dick Smith, very graciously gave his time to read the manuscript and I was assisted by his enormous knowledge of aviation.

  Australian emerging writers are lucky to have a vibrant writing community and established writers willing to give advice and the benefits of their expertise. Early words of encouragement from Kate Grenville were invaluable in keeping me going.

  The advice, feedback and wisdom imparted by James Roy on earlier drafts of this work were vital in the completion of writing this story. Sue Woolfe’s stimulating sessions on creativity in general and my manuscript in particular both enlightened and invigorated me. My editors, Chris Kunz and Katherine Muirhead, gave enormous assistance in shaping the manuscript. I was delighted to discover Giles Messier’s art deco illustration of the Great Centenary Air Race which Christa Moffitt incorporated beautifully into the book design.

  Fellow writers at the New South Wales Writers’ Centre offered feedback and camaraderie as the work progressed. In par ticular, my thanks go to Nadia Mannino, Helen Thurloe, Richard Brookton, Sarah Goldman, Jenny Hale, Derek Mortimer and Madeline Oliver. Kerry Millard kindly let me use her invented word scrinched.

  Many Albury people have shared information and their passion for the Uiver story, in particular Henk van de Ven, Deputy Mayor of Albury, Bridget Guthrie of the Albury LibraryMuseum and Melinda Grigg of AlburyCity. Helen Livsey of the Albury and District Historical Society offered her deep knowledge of the city and its resources. Any errors in this work are, of course, entirely my own.

  My publisher, Juliet Rogers, founder of The Wild Colonial Company, has been especially generous in helping me understand the workings of the industry and it has been a delight to work with her.

  As always, my sister Carolyn has been an enormous support at all stages of the research and writing and has given me valuable insights from the benefit of her own writing. In particular, she’s shown enormous patience and her customary good humour with the obsession I’ve had with the Uiver.

  AUTHOR

  Loretta Re grew up in Ballarat, immersed in the story of the famous Eureka Stock ade. Time spent as a history researcher and writer at Melbourne University boosted her interest in little-known snippets of Australian history and she has also had a successful career as a lawyer, publishing many influential legal articles.

  Loretta’s other publications include a picture book for children, Flying South, illustrated by Aileen Brown. She has pub lished light verse and humorous articles in a number of publications including the Sydney Morning Herald and a Penguin anthology, and had a regular column reviewing books and movies for Medical Observer.

  Along with her legal degrees, Loretta also has a diploma in book editing and publishing from Macleay College. She divides her time between Albury and Sydney, is actively involved in the New South Wales Writers’ Centre and is now focusing full-time on her writing career.