Authors: Anthony Eaton
Fireshadow (26 page)
AcknowledgEments
While the events and characters of this story are fictional, there is a very real context behind the story of Erich Pieters. During the Second World War large numbers of German and Italian prisoners worked in the farms and forests of South-West WA and indeed across Australia. It was their labour that supplied Perth with fuel and food and in many cases after the war these prisoners became stalwarts of the Western Australian German and Italian communities. The remains of the Marrinup town site and POW Camp 16 still stand in the jarrah forest just outside Dwellingup and I have tried to reproduce both them and the details of camp life as accurately as possible. As with any work of fiction, however, imagination has also played a large part, and any errors or inaccuracies are mine.
The Marrinup area is a strange place, quiet, peaceful and oddly haunted, and I would recommend people visit this unique part of our nation's cultural heritage.
In writing this book, I am indebted to an enormous number of people: Mr Ernie Pollis, local historian and expert on the Marrinup camp, generously shared his time, his formidable knowledge and his resources with me to help me develop the story of Erich. My family and colleagues at Trinity College, Perth, have as always proved to be supportive critics in the best sense of the words. Lucy Leonhardt, given the unenviable task of pointing out the weaknesses and inaccuracies in the manuscript, managed to do so in the nicest possible way. Leonie Tyle, my editor, continued to have faith in and encouraged my writing, and the team at UQP did the same.
And finally I thank Imogen, my best friend, my best critic and the other half of me, for all this and more.
If you are interested in learning more about the Marrinup camp site, I can recommend reading Rosemary Johnston's unpublished thesis
Marrinup POW Camp
which is available in the Battye Library in Perth. For a more general background,
Behind Barbed Wire: Internment in Australia during World War II
by Margaret Bevege and
Stalag Australia
by Barbara Winter both proved extremely useful. Colleen Camarda's book
I Loved an Italian Prisoner of War
provided me with a more personal perspective of the issues of love and internment. Information on the German wartime experience and the assassination attempt on Hitler's life came from a wide range of sources; however, Laurence Rees's
The Nazi's â A Warning from History
, Ron Rosenbaum's excellent
Explaining Hitler
, the
Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich
(edited by Richard Overy) and Ian Westwell's
Hitler's Third Reich â The Journey from Victory to Defeat
proved to be constant sources of reference.
First published 2004 by University of Queensland Press
PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia
Reprinted 2005 (twice)
This edition published 2013
© Anthony Eaton 2004
This book is copyright. Except for private study, research,
criticism or reviews, as permitted under the Copyright Act,
no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior
written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
Cover design by Jo Hunt
Cover photographs by iStockphoto
Typeset in 11/15pt Adobe Garamond by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane
Printed in Australia by McPherson's Printing Group
Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available from the National Library of Australia
ISBN 978 0 7022 3381 4 (pbk)
ISBN 978 0 7022 5137 5 (pdf)
ISBN 978 0 7022 5138 2 (epub)
ISBN 978 0 7022 5139 9 (kindle)
University of Queensland Press uses papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.
