Araluen
Authors: Judy Nunn
| Araluen |
| Judy Nunn |
| Australia |
| (1993) |
A spell-binding, multi-generational novel, set in the ruthless world of movie-making.On a blistering hot day in 1850, George and Richard Ross take their first steps on Australian soil after three long months at sea. All they have is each other, and a quarterly remittance from their irate father who has banished them to the Colonies. A decade on, and the brothers are the owners of successful vineyard, Araluen, nestled in a beautiful green valley not far from Adelaide. Now a successful businessman, George has laid down the roots of his own Ross dynasty, born of the New World. But building a family empire - at any cost - can have a shattering effect on the generations to come ... From the South Australian vineyards of the 1850s to the opulence and corruption of Hollywood's golden age... From the relentless loneliness of the outback to mega-budget movie-making in modern-day New York... Judy Nunn weaves an intricate web of characters and locations in this spellbinding saga of...
From stage actor and international television star to blockbuster best-selling author, Judy Nunn's career has been meteoric.
Her first forays into adult fiction resulted in what she describes as her 'entertainment set'.
The Glitter Game, Centre Stage
and
Araluen,
three novels set in the worlds of television, theatre and film respectively, each became instant bestsellers.
Next came her 'city set':
Kal,
a fiercely passionate novel about men and mining set in Kalgoorlie;
Beneath the Southern Cross,
a mammoth achievement chronicling the story of Sydney since first European settlement; and
Territory,
a tale of love, family and retribution set in Darwin.
Territory,
together with Judy's next novel,
Pacific,
a dual story set principally in Vanuatu, placed her firmly in Australia's top-ten bestseller list. Her following works,
Heritage,
set in the Snowies during the 1950s,
Floodtide,
based in her home state of Western Australia, and
Maralinga,
have consolidated her position as one of the country's leading fiction writers. Her eagerly awaited new novel,
Tiger Men,
will publish in November 2011.
Judy Nunn's fame as a novelist is spreading rapidly. Her books are now published throughout Europe in English, German, French, Dutch and Czech.
Judy lives with her husband, actor-author Bruce Venables, on the Central Coast of New South Wales.
By the same author
The Glitter Game
Centre Stage
Kal
Territory
Beneath the Southern Cross
Pacific
Heritage
Floodtide
Maralinga
Tiger Men
Children's fiction
Eye in the Storm
Eye in the City
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian
Copyright Act 1968
), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's and publisher's rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Araluen
9781742741789
An Arrow book
Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd
Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060
First published by Random House Australia 1994
This Arrow edition published 1999, 2007, 2011
Copyright © Judy Nunn 1994
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian
Copyright Act 1968
), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia.
Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at
www.randomhouse.com.au/offices
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry
Nunn, Judy.
Araluen/Judy Nunn.
ISBN 978 1 86471 245 2 (pbk).
A823.3
The author would like to thank
Dr Grahame Hookway in Perth,
Robyn Gurney and Sue Greaves in
Sydney and Carmen Duncan in
New York for invaluable assistance
in the researching of this book.
For my husband Bruce Venables
For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Rape of Lucrece
Come ye back to Araluen
Ancient warrior distant traveller
Tread ye softly wake me gently
Whisper to me all your woes.
Let the place of waterlilies
Soothe your pain and ease your sorrow
Sleep forever on my hillside
Where the timeless vine doth grow.
ANON
B
OOK
O
NE
The
Old Days
(1849 - 1873)
HAPTER
O
NE
George and Richard
I
T WAS A HOT
, harsh day, mid-January in the Southern Hemisphere. George and Richard stood at the portside bow of the barque
Henrietta
and watched the rugged coastline slipping by. Neither spoke. After three months at sea even Richard had run out of words. Bored and restless, no longer homesick, no longer seasick, they simply ached to set foot once more on solid ground.
But as the vessel rounded the southern headland, their torpor lifted and they gazed ahead, awestruck.
‘My God!’ Richard breathed. ‘They told us it was beautiful. But look at it, George. Just look at it!’
And the
Henrietta
sailed into the womb of Sydney Harbour.
George and Richard Ross were remittance men. They'd been banished to the Colonies by an irate father who was sick to death of buying them out of trouble — gambling and women, mainly.
Howard Ross had paid for their passage to Australia, given them each the healthy sum of five hundred pounds to get started and told them not to return to England for five years.
‘Both of you will receive one hundred pounds remittance every quarter,’ he announced. ‘If you've not straightened yourselves out within five years, then I wash my hands of you. You forfeit any further monies and you're on your own.’
Howard was a tough man and he meant it, despite the tearful protestations of his wife, Emily, who was particularly worried about Richard, the youngest of her brood of seven.
‘He's not yet twenty, Howard, and he has a weak chest.’
‘Rubbish — it's all those cigars. He's a malingerer.’ Before his wife could protest further, he added, ‘If he's consumptive, the dry climate'll do him good.’ And that was the end of the argument.
Howard didn't like Richard much, he never had, but he was sorry to see George go. He had a soft spot for George. But he couldn't show favouritism, he told himself. Both boys appeared to have inherited the weak strain that ran in the Ross family and the only way to strengthen them was to boot them out of the nest. The remaining boys had proved that they were more than capable of running the highly successful family business and the two girls had been satisfactorily married off. The House of Ross had a reputation to uphold, a reputation not only for the manufacture of the highest quality steel cutlery, but for the exemplary behaviour of its members — members of one of the
finest families in the county, or so Howard firmly believed.
George was devastated by his father's decision. Although he was only twenty-one, he had a strong sense of family and had presumed that, after sowing a few wild oats, he would take his correct place in the dynasty. He would work alongside his older brothers. He would marry and he would produce sons as a true Ross should.
No amount of argument could dissuade his father and George certainly refused to beg. Not that begging would have changed the situation. Even if it could have, George would beg to no man. Despite his father's opinion, young George was not a person of weak character. His penchant for women and gambling had been directly attributable to youth and to the influence of his younger brother. Indeed, it was his younger brother who was George's one true weakness. He had inherited his mother's need to nurture Richard. Richard was fully aware of this and used it unashamedly.
‘For goodness' sake, George, old man,’ he chaffed, ‘stop being so melodramatic. It's only for five years. We'll have a wonderful time — it will be an adventure.’ The idea of travelling halfway round the world was exciting to Richard and he was not the least bit daunted by the prospect of what might be in store for him at the other end. After all, George was with him. George would look after him. George always did.
So it was, then, that on a crisp autumn day in mid-September, 1849, George and Richard Ross set sail for the Colony of New South Wales aboard the
Henrietta.
It was a sweltering Sydney summer. Even the nights afforded no relief from the oppressive heat. ‘It's not always like this,’ George and Richard were informed. ‘This is a heatwave — things will get better.’ But such reassurances couldn't change Richard's mind. His desire for adventure quickly waned in Sydney. It wasn't just the heat. After the first flush of excitement at the sight of its magnificent harbour, he had decided that Sydney was a grubby town. He missed the green hills of Cheshire.
‘This is a hateful place,’ he complained. ‘Look at it! Space all around us and yet people build these horrid little terraced houses in imitation of the squalid parts of London! You'd think they'd know better.’
