Part of the report in The Argus newspaper of the drowing of two of my father's sisters at Elwood Beach on 1 December, 1935. From microfiche entry at the State Library of Victoria.I've posted this here because it gives you some idea of the kind of material that I'm covering in my novel called The Flood. Although I have to say that it was not this particular event that inspired the writing, its just one of the stories of my childhood. I was reared by my maternal grandmother and when I started swimming she was terribly afraid that my sister and I would drown as our Aunties did. She was totally convinced that history repeats itself. She was partly right, for my younger sister nearly drowned in a swimmng pool and I was persuaded not to jump in to try and save her. At that time we were almost extactly the same ages as our Aunties were when they drowned.
No, the thing that inspired the initial writing was the flood that occurred on Australia Day, the 26 January, 1963 after a freak hailstorm in Melbourne. We lived in Altona, which was greatly affected because the water contained in Kororoit Creek broke its banks and made its way south flooding most of the city. Water (beaches, rivers and the flow of water) as well as drowning or the fear of drowing, figures heavily in the novel as a record of real events, but also as a metaphor of life itself.
No, the thing that inspired the initial writing was the flood that occurred on Australia Day, the 26 January, 1963 after a freak hailstorm in Melbourne. We lived in Altona, which was greatly affected because the water contained in Kororoit Creek broke its banks and made its way south flooding most of the city. Water (beaches, rivers and the flow of water) as well as drowning or the fear of drowing, figures heavily in the novel as a record of real events, but also as a metaphor of life itself.
Wow I like the new page layout, so much easier to read, TY.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it Steve. I think when I first set up my blog I got carried away with aesthetic issues, such as how black can I make this space. But in the end the aesthetic (all that black and all that colored text)obscured the real reason for having the blog in the first place, which was, to share information.
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