Last Coach to Quartz Hill

Welcome to my first blog!
In this piece, I thought I’d talk a little more about the research behind my most recent book, Last Coach to Quartz Hill, to add to what I said in the historical notes at the end of the book.
I began by doing an internet search for the Quartz Hill Coach Change Station, and from this gleaned some basic facts about location, duration, history and some of the people. In all honesty there was very little! But, it was enough to whet my interest and encourage me to keep researching.
My next step was to search Trove (that invaluable national database of Australian newspapers) for every mention of the Quartz Hill Coach exchange over its twenty years of existence. These articles I painstakingly copied for future reference, as they would provide background to the major events of my novel.
After this I began to develop a basic genealogical summary of all the people associated with Quartz Hill – and then it was back to Trove to search for any mentions of them at other locations. This took several months and continued throughout the writing of the book, as records were scarce and I was constantly searching for additional clues – particularly in relation to Ben Green who was a bit of an enigma.
I already knew that I wanted to set my novel in the last few years of the coach exchange, so I had to do extensive research on the Etheridge railway and found a number of research papers which provided this background. I also knew very little about coaches, and so similar research occurred around Cobb & Co.
As I finally started writing and the characters began to take shape, I found that I didn’t really know what the layout of the Quartz Hill Change Station may have looked like – so it was back to the records from Trove. I found the one photograph (which ended up as the cover to the book), as well as a number of travel stories from people who had travelled around the district during the time Quartz Hill was operating. From these I gleaned the fact that there was a camping ground, proximity to the river, and the building materials of the two main buildings. I assumed there were stables, and also that the settlement would have been reasonably self-sufficient, hence the cows, fowls and gardens. Gradually my own image of the tiny settlement began to take shape.
I had a collection of photographs and maps that I referred to regularly, not just of Quartz Hill but of Einasleigh, Mt Surprise, Georgetown, coaches, trains, scenery, clothes etc, so that I could use these as the basis of descriptions. I also drove to Georgetown to get a sense of the scenery, the Newcastle Ranges and the distances. I didn’t have a four-wheel drive vehicle, so didn’t quite make it to Quartz Hill itself, but I did see the Talaroo Hot Springs.
Throughout the writing of the book, I found myself constantly having to research additional areas, such as the politics of the time, the main hotels in Cairns where weddings could have been held, the trial of William Dickson, the Nellie Duffy murder trial, the Kanakas, the development of Einasleigh and so on. Many was the time I would reach the end of the day with up to twenty screens to close, having written no more than a single paragraph, but nonetheless having had a fascinating day!
Finally, it all took shape. Bridget Dutton and her daughters became friends and I felt as if I knew every inch of the coach exchange. It took over nine months of writing and rewriting before it was all finished, and I was satisfied that I had brought to life one more ghost town of Australia.