Preservation by Jock Serong
Text Publishing Company, 2018. ISBN 9781925773125
(Adult - Senior Secondary) Recommended. Themes: Sydney Cove (Ship),
Shipwrecks, Sydney (N.S.W.) - History - 1851-1901. It was hard to
put down this epic tale of survival, based on a true story, which
began as a sail journey by an illicit rum trading ship, the Sydney
Cove from India, subsequently shipwrecked on Preservation Island in
Bass Strait. Fourteen survivors, including an ex-convict named Figge
disguised as a tea merchant, Clark the supercargo and a group of
Indian seamen (lascars), attempted to make a small boat rescue trip
to the newly established convict settlement at Sydney Cove. Marooned
again, on the shores of the south east Australian mainland coast the
diminishing party were forced to walk hundreds of miles as far as
Wattamolla (south of Sydney). The mystery of what happened unfolds
as an enquiry is held and the three survivors, Figge, Clark and a
lascar boy, Srinivas, are interviewed by Lieutenant Joshua Grayling,
whose wife is also involved, at the climax.
Each short chapter uses the voice of one or more of the
participants, to unveil the murderous intent of one of the party, as
the survivors encounter an unknown environment occupied by
Aboriginal tribes. The author's characters are vivid and engaging
and an atmosphere of horror is created in an authentic setting. The
Australian landscape is wonderfully described and Aboriginal people
are sympathetically depicted.
The author's previous book On the Java Ridge won the Colin
Roderick Award for the best book of the year dealing with an aspect
of Australian life.
Paul Pledger