Hello Reader

In my last newsletter I briefly touched on characters we meet over our lifetime and how these sometimes quirky and interesting people stay in our memories.

Back in 1969 we were trapping rabbits in South Australia.Times were tough,Myxomatosis was spreading through the rabbit population like wildfire. This introduced disease wasn't only infecting the rabbits but the wildlife as well. I could tell some horror stories of the sights we saw but the authorities denied it all in their quest to eradicate the rabbits which didn't work anyway and the old adaptable bunny is still there.

Queensland at this time was in the grip of one of the biggest droughts in history which was an extended dry period from the late 50s right through to 1970.

We lived in a hut made from corrugated iron and tarp walls on Yardea Station at the time. Yardea Station is situated in the Gawler Ranges about 120 miles North of Streaky Bay, South Australia.

One day over lunch we sat around the table listening to the country hour which was broadcast at 12 noon on the ABC Monday to Friday. On the radio they were discussing the severe Queensland drought and the loss of livestock which would have to replenished from interstate once the drought broke.

Dad looked around the table. "There's nothing left for us here," he said. "Let's go to Queensland, I bet the rain will follow us." The rain always followed us, no matter where we went.

Well, the rabbit buyer came and we sold what rabbits we had in the chiller, packed our belongings, pulled down the camp and hit the road. My brother Alf drove the Thames Trader truck, my brother Des who didn't even have a license back then drove the Land Rover pulling a trailer made from the back end of a Vanguard ute and Dad drove the '64 Holden station wagon towing a 12ft bondwood caravan. Mum rode in the car with Dad and my sister and I took turns changing vehicles each day. We had Mum's two Persian cats, our fox terrier dog and around a dozen hens with us.

Our first intention was to enter Queensland via the Birdsville Track, but after travelling part way along the Strzelecki Track Dad changed his mind when we struck a few creek crossing's where the dips were becoming deeper and narrower each time. After bending the caravan drawbar in one crossing we turned back at Marree towards Broken Hill and travelled up the Darling River to Hebel.

Dad wrote a song about this journey. It went along the lines of: We're heading up the Darling to a distant Queensland run, Where the air is clear and sparkling and there's a burning in the sun.

The rain hit when we got to the Queensland border, narrow bitumen roads, water lapping the edges, no room to get off if another vehicle approached from the opposite direction. Cattle knee deep in water as they splashed through the roadside scrub.

Outside St George we pulled over into a clearing on higher ground to camp for the night, fire burning, camp-oven on, stew cooking, kettle boiling. Two men carrying swags, soaking wet from the rain wandered into our camp. Dad was a generous man and wouldn't deny another man no matter who he was a hot cup of tea, a plate of stew and a warm spot by the fireside to roll out his swag. The two swaggies settled down, warming themselves, drying out their clothes and bedding beside the fire.

Dad called us into the caravan, to inform us to continue as usual. Don't ask questions of the strangers just let them talk if they wanted. The reason being one of the men was train robber Ronald Biggs. We'd heard on the news the authorities believed he was heading for Queensland, but we didn't expect he'd wander into our camp looking for a hot cuppa tea and a fire to warm himself by.

The following day it was still raining and we gave them a lift into St George on the back of the truck. They got off carrying their swags and we continued on up the Moonie Highway.

Ronald Biggs was to us, polite, well-spoken with a slight British accent. His partner on the road was just another man, a little more talkative who told use they'd partnered up down near the Victoria border to get through the bad areas around Willcannia, Bourke and up. Places where a man on his own may not be safe.

The name Ronald Biggs called himself at the time has long slipped my mind but the encounter with the great train robber hasn't.

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The Devil's Revenge

The latest in The Mara Mysteries available now on Pre-Order.

Some men hide in plain sight. That's what makes them dangerous.

When Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Bannon is pulled from his posting in country Victoria and handed a cold case by Detective Superintendent Turner. A fourteen-year-old girl raped and murdered in an empty house for sale in Cheltenham. He inherits more than a file. He inherits a failed investigation, and the uncomfortable suspicion that whoever did this won’t stop at one.
The first breakthrough doesn't come from the case file. It comes from a second body. A woman found strangled on St Kilda Beach, her night at a local hotel ending the way the killer planned from the moment he followed her.
As Bannon, Sergeant Mick Ryan, and Detective Sergeant Brad Kingsley piece together the evidence, the investigation pulls them deeper into a world of lonely victims, buried secrets, and a man who selects his targets. And with another woman already in his sights, time is not on their side. The killer is organised, methodical, and hiding in plain sight behind a tradie's ute, a dating profile, and a patient, predatory calm.
But Bannon has his own complications. A divorce grinding through the courts. Three children he barely sees. A posting at the end of all this that may or may not be waiting. And in a small town north of Melbourne, a missing sergeant and a web of corruption that someone very much wants left alone.
A gripping police procedural set in Melbourne's bayside suburbs, where the danger wears an ordinary face and the cost of the job is measured in more than time.
​
​This is the fourth book in the Mara Mysteries Series.​
This book is written in Australian English. It contains Australian slang, Australian Idioms, Australian wit and humour. You will find a glossary of all Australian terms used at the end of the book.

Click here to Pre-Order

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The Mara Mysteries - Books 1, 2, 3 and 4.

The Mara Mysteries Additional - A Weekend at Joe's

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Kendra Pecci is an upcoming new author with her book 'Focus on Deception' already getting rave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

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Unique Stories from Australia's Outback