11. Miriam Wehby — born in Lebanon in 1883. Arrived at Refuge in 1890. Landed in Melbourne in 1890. Married a distant relative. Five children. Founded the Henty Department Stores. Died in 1937 of influenza.
12. Rose Adler — thirteen years old at Refuge. Born in Bangalore, India, in 1885 (her father was in the English army and her mother was born in Rangoon, Burma). Arrived in Australia in 1898 and married Arthur Bransome in 1902. No children. She was widowed in 1904 and organised the Victorian Women’s Nursing Brigade in 1915. She served in Flanders 1915–19; founded Luton Hills District Hospital in 1922; founded the Estelle Adler Memorial Girls’ College in 1924; President of Luton Hills Women’s Guild 1932–53 and 1956–83; Director of Commonwealth Education Fund 1952–72; graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1977 and died in 1983.
13 and 14. Ahmad and Ali (brothers; surname unknown) — Ahmad was born in 1882 at Makassar in Sulawesi. Ali was born in 1883. Their father, grandfathers and great-grandfathers were trepang collectors and navigators, with enormous knowledge of the Indon archipelago and helped with transport for the sandalwood industry between Timor and northern Australia. Ahmad and Ali arrived in Australia about 1898 and worked in the pearling industry based at Broome. Ahmad was deep underwater when the captain of the ship decided to run for shore as the weather grew suddenly threatening. Ali refused to allow his brother to be brought to the surface too quickly, risking agony and paralysis from ‘the bends’, and likely death. The brothers stayed on Refuge for only a few hours, working out a strategy for their survival, with little contact with the others. As so little was known about them, it has been difficult to trace their lives in Australia, but they appear to be the two brothers who worked on the Siren 1898–99. Ali convinced the captain that they needed Ahmad’s knowledge of winds and navigation, taught to him by his father and grandfather, to survive the storm. The two brothers helped bring the ship to Broome safely. Both acted as navigators for pearling ships in the next few years, using their knowledge of both the monsoon winds and currents as well as locating pearling grounds. Their successful boat-building business has been continued by two of their children and three of their grandchildren, its headquarters moving from Broome to Perth. It has recently diversified into underwater exploration for both industrial and scientific expeditions. Ahmad died in a rescue attempt for a stricken ship in 1927. Ali died in 1951, before any of the Refuge survivors could contact him to see if the brothers were indeed those young men who had so briefly paused on the beach.
15. Susannah Murphy (Sister Margaret-Mary) — born in Galway, Ireland, in 1913. Travelled to Australia in 1923. Her illness was never diagnosed: possibly mild polio, but no other cases on board the ship. Suffered mild lower limb paralysis, but within two years this was no longer a problem. Joined the order of the Sisters of St Joseph in 1932.
16. Jane Taylor — twelve years old at Refuge. Born in Surrey, England, in 1930 and arrived at Refuge in 1942. Her family were in Singapore and hoped to evacuate to Australia when Singapore was taken by the Japanese. Instead they were imprisoned from 1942 to 1946. After the war her family decided to return to England. Jane arrived in London, England, in 1946. She became a Lecturer in Political Philosophy at London University in 1955. She didn’t come to Australia until 1962, when she was made a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University from 1962 to 1965. Jane became Professor of Philosophy, London University, in 1971; Emeritus Professor in 1993 and the editor of The Journal of International Politics. From 1966 onwards she has spent Christmas in Australia.
17. David Weisengarten — thirteen years old at arrival from Austria in 1945. Graduated from University of Sydney as a doctor in 1959. Married Esther Krantz in 1964 and had three children: Adam, William and Susannah. Founded the Hilde Weisengarten Memorial Music Scholarship; member of the Uncles support group for disadvantaged children; presented with the Order of Australia in 2002. Died in Sydney, Australia, in 2006.
18. Julio Castelli — eleven years old at Refuge. He was born in Tuscany, Italy, and left in 1947. He was ill on board ship (measles?) and arrived in Sydney in 1947. Graduated from University of New South Wales in Dentistry in 1965. He married Maria Fitzpatrick in 1977 and they had five children: Sunny, Nicholas, William, Susannah and Emily. He was Mayor of Bellagong for the period 1978–84 and was on the Bellagong Hospital Board from 1970 onwards; founded the Bellagong Junior Soccer Club in 1981; established the Bellagong Scholarship Fund in 1993. Member of the Order of Australia 2004. See Castelli family history.
19. Nikkodemus Simoneides (Nikko) — six years old at Refuge. Born in 1946. He was on a ferry to Piraeus in 1952 when he fell from the ferry and was rescued by Simon Petraeus. He arrived in Australia in 1953. He graduated from University of Sydney with a BA in 1965, Dip Ed 1966, MA 1971. He married Maria Petraeus in 1972. See Simoneides family notes for further details.
20. Mei Ling McDonald — born in Saigon in 1962. Left Saigon in 1974 and arrived in Darwin, Australia, in 1974. She graduated from the University of Queensland in 1981, having studied Ethnomusicology. She went to the Queensland Conservatorium in 1983 and married Harry McDonald in 1984. She was awarded a Helpmann Award for the score of Departures and shortlisted for the Academy Awards for the musical score of the movie Ride of the Valkyries. She had two children: Susannah McDonald born in 1987 and Adele McDonald in 1989. She died in a car crash in 2012. See notes by Susannah McDonald.
21. Rosanna Suttman — born in Chile in 1968. Arrived at Refuge in 1978. Stayed only two days. B. Law University of Sydney 1992. Worked in the Environmental Defender’s Office 1996–98. Senior partner in Suttman, Sparks and Endicott. Amateur ornithologist.
22. Jamila — thirteen years old at Refuge. She was born in 1978 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Arrived in Pakistan in 1991, reached Indonesia in 1992 and landed on Christmas Island in 1993. She graduated (Hons, Software Engineering) from Monash University in 1999 and gained her PhD in 2003. She became a contract security consultant for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and founded Data Plus Ltd in 2004. Data Plus was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2007; Jamila retained 51 per cent of shares, but retired from day-to-day management of the company. She founded the White City Scholarship Trust for Girls in 2008. Lives at ‘Highview’ via Bungendore, NSW. She is campaigning to run as an independent in the federal elections.
23. Vlad Botan (original surname unknown; changed to Lister in Australia) — born in Bosnia in 1982. Arrived at Refuge in 1996. Arrived in Sydney in 1996 and received B. Engineering at the University of Queensland in 2007. Married Melanie Harper (geophysicist) in 2008. Mining engineer, amateur ornithologist, consultant to the Environmental Defender’s Office. Presently living and working at Kalgoorlie, WA.
24. Juhi (surname unknown) — born in South Sudan in 1990. Fled Sudan for Ethiopia in 2003. She arrived at Refuge in 2005 and married Mudurra circa 60,000 BCE. May their lives have been blessed forever.
25. Abdulla al-Yussuf — eight years old at Refuge. Stayed less than a day. Circumstances of arrival unknown. Born in southern Iraq in 1999 (town unknown); family fled to Jordan in 2003; arrived at Christmas Island in 2007. High-school student at Armidale, NSW.
Acknowledgements
My gratitude to the wonderful Sisters of St Joseph: Sisters Catherine Therese Kane, Mary Harding, Sheila McCreanor, June Madden and Christine Rowan, who entranced me with their stories on a wet afternoon, and shared the histories of the women in their order. The Susannah in this book is not based on any member of the Sisters of St Joseph, but I hope that they feel she would, indeed, have found joining their order inevitable, given her background and eighty years of caring for the children of Refuge.
More thanks than I can express to the ever-wondrous Emeritus Professor Virginia Hooker for her continued suggestions and corrections, providing the names of several of the characters in this book and also their backgrounds. All errors are mine, but her knowledge and extraordinary insights enrich my life and work.
Angela Marshal performed her usual magic
, turning a mess of bad spelling into a readable manuscript, and helping the slow evolution of Nafeesa’s and Jamila’s backgrounds. Her depth of knowledge — and its eclectic breadth — mean that Angela continues to add fresh insights and information for each book.
Fabia Pryor’s invaluable research also gave me a wealth of interviews from people who had survived dangers like those in this book. While all the stories in Refuge are fiction, and not based on any person, living or dead, Fabia’s work meant that I began this book having read the words of those who had made the voyage to Australia over the past two centuries. Fabia is a gem of a researcher — every question is answered with more richness and dedication than any writer could expect. The combined energies and determination of both Fabia and Noel Pratt were put to finding out exactly what Faris’s situation would have been when he landed in Australia.
Once again Kate Burnitt has been the perfect editor, checking and rechecking details and consistency, incorporating correction after correction, each more illegible and with more crisscrossing arrows to spots in the text than the last.
And to the wonderful Kate O’Donnell too — enormous thanks for continuing to watch over the manuscripts.
It is difficult to convey how much Lisa Berryman of HarperCollins and Liz Kemp have added to and supported the creation of this work. The first draft that Lisa received was a vignette of a strange beach and a boy’s journey. As they have so many times before, Lisa and Liz both urged and guided me into telling the full story, refusing to let the most important parts of the story — and the most difficult emotionally and intellectually to write — be left to the reader’s imagination. (A row of dots is an all too easy cop-out.) Without Lisa to say ‘this doesn’t work’, I might never have attempted combining fantasy with so much realism. As with Nanberry: Black Brother White and Pennies for Hitler, Refuge is a far richer book for their guidance and friendship.
This book is about journeys. Its creation was a hard voyage as well. Many, many thanks to everyone whose inspiration and insight made it possible.
About the Author
Jackie French is a full-time writer and wombat negotiator. She writes fiction and non-fiction for all ages, and has columns in the print media. Jackie is regarded as one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors. She writes across all genres — from picture books and history to science fiction.
www.jackiefrench.com
Other Titles by Jackie French
Historical
Somewhere Around the Corner • Dancing with Ben Hall
Soldier on the Hill • Daughter of the Regiment
Hitler’s Daughter • Lady Dance • The White Ship
How the Finnegans Saved the Ship • Valley of Gold
Tom Appleby, Convict Boy • They Came on Viking Ships
Macbeth and Son • Pharaoh • A Rose for the Anzac Boys
Oracle • The Night They Stormed Eureka
A Waltz for Matilda • Nanberry: Black Brother White
Pennies for Hitler • The Girl from Snowy River
Fiction
Rain Stones • Walking the Boundaries • The Secret Beach
Summerland • Beyond the Boundaries
A Wombat Named Bosco • The Book of Unicorns
The Warrior — The Story of a Wombat • Tajore Arkle
Missing You, Love Sara • Dark Wind Blowing
Ride the Wild Wind: The Golden Pony and Other Stories
Non-fiction
Seasons of Content • A Year in the Valley
How the Aliens from Alpha Centauri
Invaded My Maths Class and Turned Me into a Writer
How to Guzzle Your Garden • The Book of Challenges
Stamp, Stomp, Whomp
The Fascinating History of Your Lunch
Big Burps, Bare Bums and Other Bad-Mannered Blunders
To the Moon and Back • Rocket Your Child into Reading
The Secret World of Wombats
How High Can a Kangaroo Hop?
The Animal Stars Series
1. The Goat Who Sailed the World
2. The Dog Who Loved a Queen
3. The Camel Who Crossed Australia
4. The Donkey Who Carried the Wounded
5. The Horse Who Bit a Bushranger
6. Dingo: The Dog Who Conquered a Continent
Outlands Trilogy
In the Blood • Blood Moon • Flesh and Blood
School for Heroes
Lessons for a Werewolf Warrior
Dance of the Deadly Dinosaurs
Wacky Families Series
1. My Dog the Dinosaur • 2. My Mum the Pirate
3. My Dad the Dragon • 4. My Uncle Gus the Garden Gnome
5. My Uncle Wal the Werewolf • 6. My Gran the Gorilla
7. My Auntie Chook the Vampire Chicken
8. My Pa the Polar Bear
Phredde Series
1. A Phaery Named Phredde
2. Phredde and a Frog Named Bruce
3. Phredde and the Zombie Librarian
4. Phredde and the Temple of Gloom
5. Phredde and the Leopard-Skin Librarian
6. Phredde and the Purple Pyramid
7. Phredde and the Vampire Footy Team
8. Phredde and the Ghostly Underpants
Picture Books
Diary of a Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)
Pete the Sheep (with Bruce Whatley)
Josephine Wants to Dance (with Bruce Whatley)
The Shaggy Gully Times (with Bruce Whatley)
Emily and the Big Bad Bunyip (with Bruce Whatley)
Baby Wombat’s Week (with Bruce Whatley)
Queen Victoria’s Underpants (with Bruce Whatley)
The Tomorrow Book (with Sue deGennaro)
Christmas Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)
A Day to Remember (with Mark Wilson)
Dinosaurs Love Cheese (with Nina Rycroft)
Copyright
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia
First published in Australia in 2013
This edition published in 2013
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Jackie French and E French 2013
The right of Jackie French to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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10 East 53rd Street, New York NY 10022, USA
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
French, Jackie.
Refuge / Jackie French.
1st ed.
ISBN: 978 0 7322 9617 9 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978 1 7430 9801 1 (epub.)
For ages 10 and over.
Refugee children—Juvenile fiction.
Immigrant children—Juvenile fiction.
A823.3
Cover design by Jane Waterhouse, HarperCollins Design Studio
Cover image © Alain Keler/Sygma/Corbis
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