One of the things I love doing in my novels is to add in an extra touch about something many people will recognise but not know much about. Researching these extra items often takes me down ‘rabbit holes’ which can last for days, but which are fascinating in their own right.
While writing ‘The Sandalwood Cutter’, I came across an advertisement for vegemite in one of the newspapers and decided to research a bit about its history. I discovered it had only just recently been introduced at the time and so I took great delight in incorporating it into my story as a trial store item and having my various characters react to it. Items such as vegemite rapidly became standard household items and I enjoyed helping it make the transition from trial to a standard grocery item in my book.
There were many things that required considerable extra research in ‘The Sandalwood Cutter’. I needed to do quite a bit of time exploring early sewing machines, high chairs for babies, commercial chess sets, millinery and the blowing of emu eggs. Each item often took days of research, often becoming little more than a paragraph in the eventual story. To my dismay, I discovered that star pickets had not been invented until towards the end of my story, so when Wally began to erect fences, I had to calculate the number of wooden posts that would need to be cut – a staggering number!
Some matters have created fascinating parallels with the modern day. When I was writing ‘Nod to the Admiral’, we were still in the midst of the COVID crisis. When the story reached 1919 and the commencement of the Spanish Inlfuenza epidemic across Australia, I was fascinated by the many measures taken then which were mirrored in the current day – such as closing borders, isolation, wearing masks and mandatory injections. This was particularly the case in WA, where the attempt was made to completely shut the border and control entry from the eastern states.
‘Cossack Pearl’ gave me the opportunity to explore Australian reactions to Queen Victoria’s jubilee and the types of celebratory events held in local communities. For Cossack, this included the opening of the much-awaited tramway between Cossack and Roebourne as well as a number of other community events.
Queen Victoria had died by the time Bluey and Molly took over the Trafalgar Hotel in ‘Nod to the Admiral’, but they did celebrate the disrupted coronation of King Edward VII with a high tea – an event which led me to research what might have been served at a high tea at the time.
It was another advertisement which led to the references to Mrs Winslow’s Soothing Syrup in ‘Women from Wolfram Camp’, one of the many remarkable cure all concoctions which were sold in the early days. This particular item contained both morphine and alcohol but was used widely for children who were teething, which is a bit frightening.
‘Women of Wolfram Camp’ contained another parallel to the modern day – the frustration with fruit bats, or flying foxes, as they were known at the time. The community then was trying to organise controls such as shooting parties and there were public meetings and newspaper articles expressing concern on their impact on fruit orchards. Nothing has changed!
Still on Wolfram Camp, I really did some manoeuvering to incorporate Ettie Rout, the New Zealand nurse who did so much to combat the spread of venereal disease amongst the British army during World War I. I managed this by ensuring that the Matron at Wolfram Camp had been a devotee of Ettie Rout and had once met her in Victoria when she was recruiting for nurses. Oh, the power of the pen!
Quite often I have my characters going off to the picture theatres or local halls to see a show. All of the shows I mention are genuine and were actually there at the time I have written about. I usually come across a reference to them in one of the early newspapers, then I trace their itinerary and then type of production of the troupe, group or film. I’ve written about the Napoleon film in a previous blog about ‘The Memory Chest’, but the ‘Last Coach to Quartz Hill’ references to the Kate Howarde Company and the Tullipan Brothers were also historically accurate. So was the visit to Wolfram Camp by the Merry Madcaps, and the balloon attempt by Professor Burns in ‘Cossack Pearl’. In the book I am currently writing I have references to some wonderful silent films, including Charlie Chaplin.
It seems that every day of writing is a history lesson for me. Often, I finish writing for the day and look back across all the windows I have open on my computer, a reminder of the many different subjects I have explored over the previous few hours. I often tell people that the research is the most exciting part of writing an historical novel, and it is.