When the ships arrived at Sydney in the early days of settlement of Australia, they brought convicts, the military and free settlers. A combination of these groups were to form the beginning of a huge pastoral industry.

These groups would become involved in thefts, illegal use of land, plotting and planning but, above all, would found the wool industry on the back of the merino, covertly and cleverly acquired despite the efforts of Spain to protect their breed.

A new colony needs news and the press will be a major purveyor of recent activities and actions affecting the population. One paper leads to another and competition can become bitter, leading to extreme measures in striving to be number one in the founding settlement of Sydney, Australia.

A novella in the 'Settlement of Australia' series.

Be a part of the Gold Rushes to California and Australia in the 1850's. Join convicts as they are transported from England to a hostile, distant land. Tramp across outback Australia with a swag on your shoulder. Share a drink with a great and famous colonial author and poet or an overnight camp with a notorious murderer. Go to war against the Boer in South Africa. Fight horrendous bush fires and sail the oceans in search of the lustrous pearl.

Share some of the history in a series of stories where fiction is woven into the reality of a fledgling nation, Australia.

Every life has a value.

 

Can a drunk ex-advertising guru help a struggling country singer from deep in the Northern Territory all the way to the stage at the Tamworth Country Music Festival?

Ernie Scrimshaw was a transported convict and arrived in Australia in the early days of settlement. He was severely treated and, finally, escaped to find a valley where he settled down. In time, after several trips back to Sydney, he established a small herd and a young family..

They crossed the mountain ranges to the huge pastoral expanse of central New South Wales.

They encountered a gang of cattle thieves, range wars, acts of revenge and restitution as they struggled to build a life in the outback.

This is a tale of the early days of the cattle industry in a wild new land.

A novelette in the Shortz!Series of stories in the Settlement of Australia Series.

Fascination with the mountain ranges leads to a life of travelling the country dedicated to the search for precious and otherwise valuable deposits of rich ore.

Tragedy strikes the family to tear their world apart. Ongoing restlessness of the wanderer takes the family far into the outback of this far-flung country, from the paradise of the Blue Mountains to the desolation of the barren interior of the western hinterland.

 

Can a young man get to know his deceased grandfather by following a trail of letters from a lonely soul in search of the life he lost and can never regain?

Follow the trail through the mining towns of outback Australia. 

First, follow Daniel Hart from war to down-and-out  to wealth to ruin.

Then follow Jake on his voyage of discovery - all the way to the end of the line.

 

Shortz!Series - A novella in the Settlement of Australia Series.

A life in the 1900's in the growing country of Australia. Feel the joys of the good times and the heartache of loss; the pleasures of peace and the horrors of war; the bounties of good seasons and the devastation of drought.