Razorhurst (47 page)

goal:
jail

goanna(s):
monitor lizard

good-oh:
okay

guns:
experienced shearers

haitch(es):
letter h

humpy:
a temporary shelter; originally a temporary bush hut made by Australian Aborigines

jack of:
sick of

kookaburra:
a common Australian bird with a distinct call which sounds like a human laugh

lookout:
one’s own business and thus not anyone else’s responsibility

newie(s):
rookie

nick (off):
piss off

pannikin (as in “off his pannikin”):
A metal pan or small metal cup, typically used out bush. Often used in the phrase “off your pannikin” crazed, deranged, out of your mind

Phar Lap:
Australia’s most famous racehorse, though she actually hailed from New Zealand

proddie:
derogatory term for a protestant

right-o:
okay

ropeable:
very angry

rouseabout (or “rousie”):
someone who does odd jobs, usually out bush

sly grog shop(s):
an unlicensed bar or liquor store where you can buy alcohol outside the legal hours for the purchase of alcohol

smoodge:
to ingratiate yourself into someone else’s affections

southerly buster:
the cold wind that blows in from the antarctic

spear/speared:
sacked

squatters:
privileged landowners who may or may not have acquired their land legitimately who now consider themselves to be Australia’s aristocracy. Or, at least, are considered to believe that of themselves by those who are less well off

(to have a) squiz:
to take a close look

standover men/man:
someone who uses the threat of violence to extort

strewth:
interjection

swag:
one’s personal belongings rolled up in a blanket and carried over one’s shoulders in order to travel through the bush

tradie(s):
tradesperson

trey:
threepence

trots:
harness racing

two-up:
a gambling game involving two coins

zack:
five-cent piece

Acknowledgments & Influences

As usual my agent, Jill Grinberg, has been both supportive and encouraging as I worked on this book. And patient,
really
patient. Her editorial comments were invaluable.

This book was marvellously well edited in Australia by Jodie Webster and Hilary Reynolds. And for this US edition by the eagle-eyed Daniel Ehrenhaft.

Thanks to Daniel, Meredith Barnes, Rachel Kowal, Amara Hoshijo and everyone at Soho Press. You’ve been fabulous to work with.

Thank you to my first readers, Scott Westerfeld, Megan Reid, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Jan Larbalestier.

K. Tempest Bradford helped keep me going with our weekly chapter exchange.

Thanks to Donna Nelson for allowing me to borrow her surname, suggesting the first name Gloriana, and telling me tales of her family’s years of living in Surry Hills.

Thanks to Gwenda Bond and Christopher Rowe for typewriter research.

This book would not exist if Johnny Heron hadn’t insisted that I read Larry Writer’s
Razor: Tilly Devine
,
Kate Leigh and the Razor Gangs
. You were right, Johnny, it’s a wonderful book.

Razorhurst
was also inspired by my move to the venerable Sydney suburb of Surry Hills. Although I grew up in inner-city Sydney, I had never lived in any of the suburbs that made up Razorhurst until 2005.

My Surry Hills home is around the corner from what was once Frog Hollow. Several signs there commemorate the fact. Although now it’s thoroughly gentrified, I’d known that when I was a kid Surry Hills was considered to be a dangerous area. It was where criminals and poor people and weirdo bohemians lived. It was not a neighbourhood full of million-dollar-plus flats, fancy restaurants, coffee shops, boutiques, furniture shops, and hair salons. (Seriously, what is it with all the hairdressers in Surry Hills? I swear there’s one per block.) Most of the poor have been driven out, though fortunately there are still Housing Commission flats, homeless shelters, and needle exchanges. May they never be forced out. Most of the
remaining criminals are decidedly white-collar and own some of those million-dollar-plus properties.

Then I read Larry Writer’s
Razor
, a non-fiction account of inner-city Sydney’s razor gangs in the twenties and thirties. Which led to other splendid books such as Larry Writer’s own
Bumper: The Life & Times of Frank ‘Bumper
’
Farrell
and Vince Kelly’s
Rugged Angel: Australia’s First Policewoman
. Around the same time, I came across
Crooks Like Us
by Peter Doyle and
City of Shadows
by Peter Doyle with Caleb Williams. These are two books of Sydney Police photographs from 1912 to 1960. The photos of crime scenes, criminals, victims, missing persons, and suspects are extraordinarily vivid black-and-white pictures, which evoke the dark side of Sydney more richly than any other resource I have come across. Some of the faces in those two books I will never forget.

As stated in the dedication, the novels of Ruth Park and Kylie Tennant were a huge influence on this book. They are two of Australia’s finest writers and should be much more widely read and loved than they are. I read and re-read their books published in the 1930s and 1940s throughout the writing of
Razorhurst
. Kylie Tennant’s
Foveaux
, a fictionalised history of Surry Hills, was particularly inspiring.

Although this novel was inspired by an actual time and place, that’s the beginning and end of the resemblance. None of the events in the book are based on real events. I have taken liberties with some of the geography, ghosts aren’t real, and my characters are wholly their own selves.

Though a few had starting points with real people:

Dymphna Campbell started with Dulcie Markham and Nellie Cameron, two young, beautiful prostitutes who were Razorhurst’s best girls during their time. Dulcie Markham was dubbed the “Angel of Death” because, according to Larry Writer in
Razor
, at least eight (!) of her lovers were murdered. Markham was able to get out; Cameron was not so lucky.

Gloriana Nelson was inspired by Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, who were rivals and ruled various parts of Razorhurst, making what would be millions of dollars in today’s terms. I decided to combine them in homage to Ruth Park, who invented Delie Stock as her Tilly Devine/Kate Leigh character in her wonderful novel,
The Harp in the South
. Miraculously both Devine and Leigh lived into old age. Though neither had much money or influence at the end.

I use the term
Razorhurst
with great frequency, but it was not generally used. It was a beat-up term coined, and mostly deployed, by the Sydney
Truth
. But I love the term, and the fact that Razorhurst was in many ways an imaginary place fits well with my wholly imaginary book. The Sydney
Truth
has also been inspiring. What a wonderfully overwritten, addicted-to-alliteration, sensationalist tabloid it was. Sydney is the poorer since its passing.

I used the
Oxford English Dictionary
online, the
Macquarie Dictionary
online, Google’s Ngrams, the National Library of Australia’s Trove online repository of digitised Australian newspapers, G. A. Wilkes’s
A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms
, and Hugh Lunn’s
Lost for Words: Australia’s Lost Language in Words and Stories
to make sure the words and phrases I used in this book were in use in Sydney in 1932. Any remaining anachronisms are entirely my own lookout. Please don’t chiack me over my mistakes. But I’d love to hear about them.

Other inspirations for this book are the film noirs I obsessively watched and rewatched as a teen and, well, as an adult too.
Out of the Past
and
Gilda
remain two of my favourite movies. I was especially fascinated by those glorious femme fatales and have always wanted to write a book from their point of view. Dymphna Campbell is my homage to all of them.

That’s why she gets to live.

Justine Larbalestier is the author of the award-winning bestseller
Liar
and several other novels. She also edited the collection
Zombies vs. Unicorns
with Holly Black. She lives in Sydney where she gardens, boxes, and watches far too much cricket. Justine has been obsessed with the 1930s since she saw her first Jean Harlow movie as a littlie.
Razorhurst
is the result. You can find out more about Justine here:
justinelarbalestier.com
.