Upon unearthing his past I have now been in touch with several cousins. All of these cousins, also unaware of their colourful antecedents, were already acquaintances, distinguished in their various artistic and literary milieu, and I had admired them from a distance. We have since had a cousins’ dinner. The second convict became a captain of industry and commerce whose descendants I have not dared approach.
My father, too, is still remembered in the essence of the Cross. Outside the house in which I which I was born, under the feet of the emerging travellers on the Kings Cross Underground station are set—not one but two—plaques:
The person who knew and loved the cross was Dr Jim Eakin. He knew the way into dark and gloomy basements and he climbed rickety staircases on errands of mercy. His waiting room was always full: he kept no set hours but always came when he was needed.
Eakin was known as the gun doc because he looked after the medical needs of the Sydney underworld as well as his regular patients.
Nobody else has more than one. I think it would have given my father a wry but emotional chuckle.
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J. M. Coetzee
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Wake in Fright
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Peter Corris
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Careful, He Might Hear You
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Fairyland
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Terra Australis
Matthew Flinders
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Owls Do Cry
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In the Memorial Room
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My Brilliant Career
Miles Franklin
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Such Is Life
Joseph Furphy
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The Fringe Dwellers
Nene Gare
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Cosmo Cosmolino
Helen Garner
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Wish
Peter Goldsworthy
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Dark Places
Kate Grenville
Introduced by Louise Adler
The Idea of Perfection
Kate Grenville
Introduced by Neil Armfield
I Saw a Strange Land
Arthur Groom
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The Quiet Earth
Craig Harrison
Introduced by Bernard Beckett
Down in the City
Elizabeth Harrower
Introduced by Delia Falconer
The Long Prospect
Elizabeth Harrower
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The Catherine Wheel
Elizabeth Harrower
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The Watch Tower
Elizabeth Harrower
Introduced by Joan London
Out of the Line of Fire
Mark Henshaw
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The Long Green Shore
John Hepworth
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The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
Fergus Hume
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The Chantic Bird
David Ireland
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The Unknown Industrial Prisoner
David Ireland
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The Glass Canoe
David Ireland
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A Woman of the Future
David Ireland
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Eat Me
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Moral Hazard
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Julia Paradise
Rod Jones
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Ned Kelly
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Bring Larks and Heroes
Thomas Keneally
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Strine
Afferbeck Lauder
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Kenneth Mackenzie
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The Refuge
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Shane Maloney
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Frederic Manning
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Olga Masters
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Olga Masters
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Ronald Hugh Morrieson
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Sarah Murgatroyd
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Gerald Murnane
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William Nagle
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Life and Adventures 1776–1801
John Nicol
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Death in Brunswick
Boyd Oxlade
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Swords and Crowns and Rings
Ruth Park
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The Watcher in the Garden
Joan Phipson
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Maurice Guest
Henry Handel Richardson
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The Getting of Wisdom
Henry Handel Richardson
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Henry Handel Richardson
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Rose Boys
Peter Rose
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Ivan Southall
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Ash Road
Ivan Southall
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Ivan Southall
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Eleanor Spence
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Louis Stone
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Tourmaline
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Randolph Stow
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Patrick White
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Amy Witting
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Patricia Wrightson
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