* Philip Gidley King’s words
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Joseph Holt made mention in his memoir of a shepherd boy who visited his farm around the time of the uprising. Jonothan Joseph Daley developed as a fictional character from this single reference. Kitt, Pat and Croppy John grew around Joe in my imagination, although there were numerous croppies named Jonothan (John) who took part in the Castle Hill rebellion.
The historical facts surrounding the key events and my fictionalisations of the real-life people involved were drawn from primary sources, notably the Historical Records of New South Wales, Volume 5, which covers the period 1803–1805 and Joseph Holt’s own memoir, titled A Rum Story. The following two secondary sources were of particular reference:
Death or Liberty: Rebels and Radicals Transported to Australia 1788–1868, Tony Moore, Pier 9, Murdoch Books Pty Limited, Sydney, 2010.
The Battle of Vinegar Hill: Australia’s Irish Rebellion 1804, Lynette Ramsey Silver, The Watermark Press, Sydney, 2002.
Today the Darug people are reclaiming the language and cultural heritage of their First Peoples. They are assisted by community, university and government projects. The vocabulary used in the story comes from the Dharug dialect, the Dharug language group of the Darug people, sourced at the website: http://dharug.dalang.com.au, a community project and initiative of The University of New South Wales.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Clare Hallifax and Kristy Bushnell, as well as the wider Scholastic team, for their continued support.
To Michael, Ryan, Emily, Stuart, Rhiannon, Shane and my darling grandchildren – always and ever.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chrissie Michaels has discovered a long line of Irish ancestry in her background. Though she cannot make any ancestral claim to specific rebels or convicts sent to New South Wales, there are definitely plenty who went by the names of her ancestors and she feels connected by this kinship and by place. This is her third novel in the My Australian Story series.
To find out more about the author visit: https://sites.google.com/site/chrissiemichaelsorg.
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First published by Scholastic Australia Pty Ltd, 2019.
This electronic edition published by Scholastic Australia Pty Limited, 2019.
E-PUB/MOBI eISBN: 978-1-74383-337-7
Text © Chrissie Michaels, 2019.
Cover design by Limedesign
Chrissie Michaels asserts her moral rights as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, unless specifically permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 as amended.
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