Local history buff and established author Ann Andrew has added a sixth publication to her name with her most recent book – a historical non-fiction novel about the Crooke family’s establishment in Gippsland and the erection of the stunning Holey Plain Homestead, located south-east of Rosedale: Success in Kangaroo Land – The Crooke Family of ‘the Holey Plain.
Next Wednesday, (November 9), at 7pm, Mrs Andrew will launch her latest book in the Wellington Room at the Port of Sale.
Mrs Andrew has spent her entire life in Gippsland, growing up in Fulham, attending school at St Anne’s, nowadays known as Gippsland Grammar, and working as a medical librarian at Sale Hospital before starting her career as an author.
In 1991, Mrs Andrew published her first non-fiction novel, Two Turrets and a Dome; a history of the Gippsland Base Hospital 1860s to 1980s, followed by Life at St Annes, Gippsland Grammar School and STAGGS in 1995 and Bairnsdale’s Home and Hospital in 1998.
Before Success in Kangaroo Land, Mrs Andrew also published 50 years of history; Seaspray Surf Life Saving Club 1955 to 2005 and The Hico Story; Dairy herd improvement in Gippsland and Colac.
“I just like local history, and once you get into it, it becomes really quite a passion,” Mrs Andrew said.
“This story [Success in Kangaroo Land], the significance is the family has records going back to when they first took the property on in 1837.
“There are not many properties now still held by the original family that have got the original records, which is where I have got the information from, and it tells a wonderful story of early pastoral developments, squatters and early settlements.”
Each page of Success in Kangaroo Land leads readers through a fascinating story about the Crooke family and the early settlement of the Gippsland region, with exquisite original photographs, maps and records creating a spectacular vitality between the book’s ends.
Bookings for the official public launch of Ann Andrew’s latest work can be made via Eventbrite or directly through the Sale Library.
