by Joy Rhoades
For more information about the novel please go to joyrhoades.com and thewoolgrowerscompanion.com
ATTRIBUTIONS
Fairfax Syndication and Trove
The newspaper article entitled Aborigines Moving Camp is based on a Sydney Morning Herald article of 30 November 1935 of the same name, sourced from Trove: 1935 ‘ABORIGINES’, The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842–1954), 30 November, p. 17, at http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17218540.
John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library
The Anzac Day broadcast is modelled on the speech by the Prime Minister Mr John Curtin of 25 April 1945, available via the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. Records of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Anzac Day messages, 25 April 1945. JCPML00408/15.
National Archives
The rationing broadcast is modelled on ‘A short talk by the Rationing Commission presented to the Workers of Australia’, available at publication at http://www.ww2australia.gov.au/allin/livingwar.html and the National Archives.
The Woolgrower’s Companion, 1906 does not exist, apart from in my imagination.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In accordance with Aboriginal custom and protocol, I pay respect to the Elders and descendants both past and present who are custodians of the Australian lands on which I have lived and worked.
I acknowledge all those who were so willing to share their knowledge and thoughts, the academics and other experts, family and friends. I am intensely grateful. Any errors are mine. My heartfelt thanks to advisors John Hall, Gian Luca Manca, Stephen O’Malley and Peter Stanley, and to Paola Barrachi, David Crean, Sandra McEwen, Melanie Oppenheimer, Gaetano Rando and Simon Ville.
I am deeply indebted to those who spoke to me about the history of the Aboriginal people. I salute Aunty Kerry Reed-Gilbert, a woman of the Wiradjuri Nation, from whom I have learnt so much, and thank her from the bottom of my heart for her cultural guidance, her gentle suggestions and her keen eye. My profound thanks also to Catherine Faulkner, a woman of the Anaiwan Nation, for her expert guidance on birthing practices, and for her help in ensuring respect for traditional knowledge and cultural practices. My thanks also to Cleonie Quayle, a Maljangapa woman of the Pooncarie Paakantj nation, and to Lorina Barker, a descendant of the Wangkumara and Muruwari people of Bourke, Weilmoringle and Brewarrina in north-western New South Wales. My sincere thanks also to Heather Goodall, and especially to Diana Eades and Victoria Haskins for their invaluable advice.
My grateful thanks to Jeffery Renard Allen, and also to Alexandra Shelley for her encouragement and guidance during the development of the book – a terrific cheerleader – and to my wonderful editors Beverley Cousins, Clara Farmer and Catherine Hill. Thanks also to my agent, the indefatigable Stephanie Koven, and to literary assistant Jessica Mileo.
Last but most of all, I thank my family for their love and humour through all of the pages.
RECIPES
Kate spends a good deal of happy time in the kitchen, and that sprang from wonderful childhood memories I have of the country women who filled their kitchens with scones and tea, with people, and laughter, and still do so now, all across the bush. A mainstay is the Country Women’s Association Cookbook, which I use too. I was lucky enough to recently find a copy of the 1941 edition, and it’s a trove of good sense and good food. The scone recipes, set out below, are much as Kate and Daisy would have made them.
While the CWA is most famous for the legendary cooking skills of their members, they also do so much to help country communities in remote and not-so-remote Australia.
I’m also attaching some much-loved recipes from my family’s collection – Anzac biscuits, a boiled-fruit cake, Orange Delicious and a wonderful sponge. I hope you enjoy them very much. I was raised on them!
SWEET SCONES
1lb flour, 1 cup milk, 2 tablespoons cream, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon soda, ¼ teaspoon salt, 1 cup sultanas or cut-up dates.
Beat cream and sugar until light, add milk and stir well, then flour, rising and fruit. Roll out, cut into scones and bake in a hot oven for 8–10 minutes. Brush a little milk over before baking.
CREAM SCONES
Two cups plain flour, 2 large teaspoons baking powder, 2 dessertspoons sugar, salt, half-cup cream, 1 egg, milk.
Sift dry ingredients, add the sugar, mix into a soft dough with egg, cream, and milk if necessary. Turn on to floured board. Knead. Roll out. Cut into squares with a sharp knife. Place on greased tin, glaze with egg-glazing. Bake in hot oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Turn on to cake cooler. Serve hot with butter.
PRIZE-WINNING SCONES
1lb flour, 2ozs icing sugar, 2ozs butter, 1½ cups milk, ½ teaspoon salt, 1oz cream of tartar, ½ oz bicarbonate of soda, 1 egg if liked.
Sift dry ingredients three times, then mix with milk and egg. Bake in a fairly hot oven. The mixture should be handled as lightly as possible and patted into shape with the hands. Then cut into shapes as desired and brushed over with a little milk. Bake on a hot floured tray until a rich golden brown.
RECIPES FROM MY FAMILY
BOILED FRUIT CAKE
Put into saucepan 1 cup sugar; 400g raisins/dried fruit; 240g margarine; 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda; 1 teaspoon spice; ½ cup cold water; ½ cup brandy or port.
Bring to boil and cool.
When cool add two cups self-raising flour, then 2 well-beaten eggs, and some vanilla essence.
Bake in greased tin about 1¼ hours at 190°C. Cool in this tin.
ANZAC BISCUITS
Put 125g margarine or butter and 1 tablespoon honey in saucepan and melt.
Put into basin ¾ cup sugar; 1 level cup plain flour; 1 cup rolled oats; pinch salt; ¾ cup coconut
Add one teaspoon soda to 2 tablespoons boiling water and then add this to the margarine and syrup mixture.
Add this to the dry ingredients, mix well, drop in small spoonfuls on greased tray. Cook at 180°C for 8–10 minutes. If too stiff add a little water as they are nice a bit thin.
MAVIS’S SPONGE CAKE
4 eggs, separated; 1 small cup castor sugar; ¾ cup plain flour; 2 heaped teaspoons cornflour; 1 teaspoon baking powder (level); 1 dessertspoon butter; 2 tablespoons milk; 2 tablespoons boiling water.
Beat egg whites until very stiff, with a pinch of salt. Add sugar slowly. Add beaten egg yolks – beat in together.
Sift flour, cornflour and baking powder together. Add to the egg whites etc., and fold in very gently. Put butter, milk, and boiling water in saucepan and bring to boil.
Make hole at side of mixture and pour boiled mixture in, folding gently. Then pour mixture into 2 greased and floured sponge tins. Bake for 20 minutes in 225°C oven.
ORANGE DELICIOUS
Peel and segment 3 oranges, place them in the bottom of a greased pudding dish. Cream 60g butter with ¾ cup castor sugar and the grated rind of an orange. Add 2 beaten egg yolks, then ½ cup self-raising flour and the juice of one lemon. Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Add ¾ cup orange juice and ¾ cup milk.
Fold in the egg whites, ? at a time. Pour over orange segments and cook for 30–40 minutes at 180°C.
BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS
The novel opens as the graziers, along with Kate, the only woman, await the arrival of the prisoners of war. Why do you think the author chose to begin in this way?
Landscape plays a big part in the book, and we see Kate’s love of her environment, albeit a brutal and inhospitable one. How do you think landscape shapes Kate’s character? Do we also see its impact on Daisy? Harry? Luca?
Kate finds her strengths over time but is flawed too, failing to see things and sometimes assuming the worst of people. Did her flaws help you to sympathise with her? Make her more believable?
Ralph suffers from shellshock, or post-traumatic stress disorder in today’s terminology. The local doctor is ahead of his time in recognising the long-term nature of the condition. What did you think of his suggestions to Kate for dealing with her father’s
condition?
Jack loses control and continues to beat the snake long after it is dead. What parallels with Ralph’s condition might the author be drawing with this image?
Because of the race and class constraints of the time, Kate and Daisy never reach a real friendship, but can only develop a regard and respect for each other. Can you imagine how their relationship might unfold today?
Dirt is a perennial image in the novel: the dry earth of the dead lawn and paddocks; the dirt of the veggie garden; the dirt covering Ralph’s coffin. What do you think the author’s intentions might be in using such imagery?
Did you enjoy the quotes from the fictionalised Victorian wool-growing guide at the start of each chapter? How did they help you understand the story?
The novel contains a number of secrets and surprises. Which were most important to your enjoyment?
Kate reaches out to Luca for her own fleeting happiness near the end of the novel, yet it is left unclear as to whether Jack will return, and how Kate will respond to him if he does. What do you think might happen?
Why are the relationships between the women – Kate and Daisy, and Kate and Meg – important to the success of the story?
The author grew up in a small town in Australia, which she has said is a lot like Longhope. Did you find the town and its characters believable?
The novel closes at the railway station, where it also opened. Why do you think the author chose to do this? What are the most striking contrasts between these two scenes?
Joy Rhoades was born in Roma in western Queensland. Growing up, she loved two things best: reading and the bush, whether playing in creek beds and paddocks, or climbing a tree to sit with a book. Her family would visit her grandmother, a fifth-generation grazier and a gentle storyteller of her life on her family’s sheep farm.
At 13, Joy left Roma for Brisbane, first to school and then to study law at university. After graduating, she worked all over: first in Sydney, then London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and New York. It was in New York that she completed a Masters in Creative Writing at the New School University and wrote much of The Woolgrower’s Companion, a novel inspired in part by snippets of her grandmother’s life and times.
She now lives in London with her husband and their two young children, and she misses the Australian sky.
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Version 1.0
The Woolgrower’s Companion
9781473546806
First published by Vintage in 2017
Copyright © Joy Rhoades 2017
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
A Vintage book
Published by Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd
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www.penguin.com.au
Addresses for the Penguin Random House group of companies can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com/offices.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Rhoades, Joy, author
The woolgrower’s companion/Joy Rhoades
ISBN 978 0 14378 214 8 (ebook)
Women farmers – New South Wales – Fiction
Wool industry – New South Wales – Fiction
Australian fiction
Cover photography © Roux Hamilton/Arcangel Images
Author photograph by Phil Wilson
Ebook by Firstsource