Catalogue
Sarjan
The story covers the first twenty-five years of the establishment of the Swan River colony in Western Australia. As a partner in the initial British government backed settlement scheme, Thomas Peel plays a pivotal role in the settlement of the Mandurah to Pinjarra region.
In an attempt to put a stop to the natives hampering the advancement of the colony, including the murdering of settlers, the Murray River Aboriginal tribe is attacked and routed in the 'Battle' of Pinjarra, by a force led by the Governor, James Stirling. The personal ambitions of Peel and Stirling are furthered as a result.
Two Aboriginal Elders, Mandu and Odern look after an Aboriginal boy, Yeddi, who survives the massacre, and Sarah Jane and William Andrews, children of one of Peel's indentured servants who were injured and orphaned in a bushfire. During this time, Sarjan and Willum, as they are called, live and learn Aboriginal culture.
When the white children are returned to their people, they are adopted by Reverend and Mrs Blair, and live in Fremantle, where they receive a classical Victorian education.
The lives of the three children are followed, and a deep friendship between Sarah Jane and Yeddi becomes increasingly apparent as they reach young adulthood. Their affection transcends custom and race and flourishes in its innocence. Only circumstances - together with distance and time - force them to assume their appointed positions in contemporary society.
After Yeddi is wrongly implicated in a tribal payback incident, he is incarcerated on Rottnest Island, where he succumbs to despair and a broken spirit.
Sarah Jane and William face challenges in the colony as they develop a business transporting goods to outlying coastal settlements.
The narrative describes adventures in Western Australia, England, South Africa and the Victorian goldfields, and melds well-researched history with a rich imagination of true to life characters.
Sarjan has proved popular with male and female readers and, in any twenty-first century melting pot society, it is a must read for young and old.
Doctoring Dying: The Capacity Assessment Process in Western Australia (A survival guide for anyone with assets, and a family that wants to get your assets before you're dead)
When Western Australia's politicians opted to dispense with the red tape involved in traditional Courts, and operate under a 'simplified' system in the State Administrative Tribunal, little did they intend to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Such fundamental legal principles as rules of evidence, conflicts of interest, and transparency of decision-making have been disbanded, and decisions are being made on the basis of false and misleading information, or vexatious and malicious allegations. Unwitting victims can even be tried on secret evidence.
Greedy and dishonest relatives can lie with impunity, and recruit rogue Doctors to stitch up innocent elderly people - who are then wrongly certified as lacking capacity to make decisions for themselves (and thereby denied any legal redress).
The State Administrative Tribunal is not just the decision making body with responsibility for determining who has capacity to decide, but its vocational regulation stream also makes decisions about disciplinary procedures against Doctors - those same Doctors who are secretly providing (false and misleading) reports to Courts and Tribunals under the guise of professional confidentiality.
It is a situation, which begs the question: Why is the capacity assessment procedure currently operating in Western Australia so unique, secretive and at odds with the nationally and internationally accepted transparent process?
It should ring alarm bells for anyone blindly advocating voluntary euthanasia legislation, which only requires the endorsement of an alleged terminal medical condition, by the certification of two 'qualified' Doctors.
As members of the AMA, their loyalty to each other appears far stronger than their sworn oath to 'at least do no harm'. Even the 'behind closed doors' investigations by the Medical Board of WA are at odds with international standards of transparency.
Unless and until the unjust process is rectified, vulnerable people need all the help they can get, and this handy little book might just save them from a one-way trip to the nursing home.
Make-Believe-Marriages: How a squatter can fleece you (or a boarder can bankrupt you) in the Family Court of Western Australia.
When politicians reach bipartisan agreement about anything to do with same-sex couples, it is more often due to an economic benefit to the taxpayer, and not for altruistic reasons.
However, changing the definition of 'defacto' to include same sex couples (which came into effect in 2002) has netted more than was intended. You don't have to be in a long-term or sexual relationship, and there can be several people living in your house. It takes only one party to allege having made a significant contribution (usually the one with the most to gain) and the asset owner could be up for tens or hundreds of thousands fighting an absurd legal battle that they just might lose. Don't forget that Courts deal in law and not necessarily either truth or justice.
It was never intended that a boarder, or boarders, domiciled in another person's home could make a claim on the homeowner's assets (was it?). How many people accommodate junior relatives (or country or overseas students) - who regularly stay for more than two years - in the naive belief that they are doing their bit to help younger generations (and maybe have some company and a little bit of help in the process)?
Just what is to stop a dishonest person, domiciled in another person's home, from falsely claiming they have made a significant contribution to the homeowner's assets? Well nothing, apparently.
Elderly people are being robbed of their life savings and left severely traumatised - some homeless - after being dragged into a costly legal battlefield, by a system that is clearly being abused.
It took ill-conceived legislation to create this sorry state of affairs, and it will take sensible legislation to rectify the situation - but don't hold your breath - and, in the meantime, don't let anyone move into your home (trusted family, friend or not) without a legally prepared formal agreement.
99 not out: The memoirs of Australia's oldest surviving test cricketer, Marie JeGust.
Marie's story is reminiscent of Angela's Ashes, but in her own words. She tells of her heart wrenching childhood in war torn London, of the family's involvement in Western Australia's doomed soldier settlement scheme, and of her mother's two-year incarceration in Perth's mental hospital (for having the temerity to speak out against injustice).
How many women do you know who singlehandedly built one house in the middle of the last century, let alone more than twenty? It is a truly incredible story that will have your emotions on a roller coaster - from weeping with despair, to tears of joy.
You will be in awe of the triumphs of a family of Western Australia's pioneering women, (Marie, her sister, Ruby, and their mother, Caroline) and of their amazing achievements against seeming insurmountable odds - and one of them, apparently, has a better bowling average than Shane Warne.