Success in Kangaroo Land – The Crooke Family of ‘the Holey Plain’ is the latest non-fiction novel from local author Ann Andrew to hit the shelves, recounting the history of the Crooke family and the origins of the Holey Plain Homestead.
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 following the Crooke family’s establishment in Gippsland and the erection of the stunning Holey Plain Homestead, located southeast of Rosedale.
A structure well known by Mrs Andrew, having grown up as family friends with the Crookes, spending many afternoons playing hide and seek upstairs, exploring the many rooms and discovering hidden secrets of the homestead.
Mrs Andrew has spent her entire life in the Gippsland region, 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 commencing 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.
Prior to 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 birthing a spectacular vitality between the book’s ends.
“Josh from Sign Torque did the graphic design which makes it; it has come up beautifully,” Mrs Andrew said.
“To have these maps that people can identify with has been wonderful; access to all the letters, photos and records, has just been beautiful.
“It has been a great passion, and I have thoroughly enjoyed doing it.”
The publication of Success in Kangaroo Land has been three, almost four years in the making, hundreds upon hundreds of hours of researching, thinking and writing.
Peter Synan, a Sale-based historian and Gippsland history author, recognised Mrs Andrew’s hard work and dedication with an attractive quote in the book’s preface.
‘For the casual reader, Ann’s book is wholly enjoyable. For the scholar of land history, it’s a breakthrough work allowing a much fuller understanding of the nature of and place of squattocracy in Australian history,’ it read.
“It has been the best; my heart is really in this one,” Mrs Andrew said.
“We had a launch on Saturday (October 1) just for the family at the Criterion, and because my family know their family, all my siblings came and caught up with them; it was fabulous.”
The official public launch of Success in Kangaroo Land will be at the Sale Library on November 9, beginning at 7pm; bookings can be made via Eventbrite or directly through the Sale Library.
Success in Kangaroo Land – The Crooke Family of ‘the Holey Plain’ is available now at Collins Booksellers Sale in-store and online.
