I loved doing a session this year with Damien Hassan (State Records Office of WA) and Sam Longley (ABC Radio), one of the Friday afternoon ‘History Repeated’ segments on ABC 720.
We talked about use of the State Records Office as a source of both inspiration and research for my novel The Sinkings, and the kinds of records that helped to illuminate events in the novel and the character of sandalwood carter and former convict Little Jock King.
Little Jock was the victim of a horrific murder in 1882, near Albany in WA’s South West, and Damien spoke about the murder map held among the SRO’s treasures—a macabre but fascinating artefact that was created for the 1883 Supreme Court trial of John Collins for the murder of Little Jock. The map is shown, courtesy of the SRO, in an earlier post here.
The combined resources of the State Records Office and the State Library have played a part in nearly everything I’ve published so far, as well as my current work in progress, and I’m deeply grateful that such records have been preserved to enrich our understanding of the past.
The ’History Repeated’ segment can be found on the SRO website here—just scroll down the list to find The Sinkings.
looking up/looking down 