Country NSW

It's always interesting to see a favoured author head off in another direction, and THE DIGGERS REST HOTEL is a big directional switch for Geoffrey McGeachin.  Moving away from the madcap all-Australian James Bond of the Alby Murdoch books, we are introduced to a new character, a new timeframe and a very different approach.

Set in post World War II Victoria THE DIGGERS REST HOTEL introduces Charlie Berlin.  A pilot during the war, back to the police on his return, Charlie is deeply traumatised.  Sent to Albury-Wodonga to investigate a series of robberies that have suddenly become violent, this is also a story of the after-affects of war.  Alongside the robbery, a subsequent murder and Charlie's own story, there are glimpses of the damage done on the home-front as well.  The man whose son was a victim of a brutal death, and the brother who survived.  The young Australian photographer and would-be newspaper reporter, who has her own family tales of difficulty for her German-born parents.  

The information that came with this book highlights how the author has used the stories of his own father's wartime experiences as both an airman and a POW in Europe, as well as his childhood recollections of growing up in country-town Australia.  It's a very realistic portrayal of country Australia - be it in the late 1940's or even more recently (well in this reader's memory anyway).  Balance that small-town, closed environment, and the changes that are coming over a society traumatised and profoundly changed by the war and those who did and didn't return, against the individual story of one man who was so profoundly affected by events in Europe, and well, you end up with something that's entertaining, moving and affecting.

THE DIGGERS REST HOTEL isn't a straight up police procedural, this book is about a man who, as damaged and fragile as he is, is an observationist.  Along with the personal perspective that this book is built upon, there is also an investigation - finding the motorbike riding gang who have terrorised and robbed multiple Railway locations, and then the horrific murder of a young Chinese girl in the town.  There is also a fragile and tentative love story.  There is also some stark examples of the differences between acceptable social conventions then, and now.  Domestic violence, racism, thuggery, sexism, double standards - they are all touched upon, displayed but not dwelled upon.  

Undoubtedly the great strength of THE DIGGERS REST HOTEL is the character study of Charlie Berlin, followed very closely by the affects of war on everyone, even in a small country-town deep within Australia - on the border of New South Wales and Victoria.  Charlie Berlin is a wonderfully flawed human policeman, doing his duty, falling apart and picking himself back up again.  THE DIGGERS REST HOTEL really does remind you that in the days post World War II there wasn't counselling, there wasn't retraining, there wasn't support.  There was just the demons, and the jobs that had to be done, and alcohol and there were those that found a way to fit back in, and those that never did.

Author Anne Lovell found out by accident that her aunt, Connie Sommerlad, had been murdered by John Trevor Kelly in 1939. John Kelly goes down in Australian history with the dubious honour of being the last man to be hung in NSW.  Connie’s name had never been mentioned by any of the older members of the family – her life, and death, had remained a secret.  Why?  As Anne investigates her late aunt’s life, she discovers that it was not the horrific murder that embarrassed the family into silence but something quite different.

Connie and her younger brother Eric ran the family farm near Tenterfield in NSW.  John Kelly was their farm hand.  One Saturday night in early 1939, Kelly hacked Connie to death with an axe, attacked Eric with it and left him for dead, jumped into the farm ute and headed for Brisbane.  Here he was quickly apprehended by the police and immediately confessed to the murder.  He was sentenced to death by hanging, and this was carried out 24/08/1939. So if her horrific murder was not the cause of the family’s embarrassment – then what was? 

In the 1930s marriage and religion were the backbone of society and a woman having choices over her own life was virtually unheard of.  So when young Connie fell pregnant her choices were very limited.  She chose to not tell the family about her condition and had her son; who became a horrendous embarrassment to Connie’s family when the truth came out just before her murder.  So great was the potential scandal that the family were able to convince the doctor who did the inquest to omit the fact that Connie had had a child and just to mention that she had not been sexually assaulted.  This meant that Connie’s ‘shame’ would not be on the public record.

The keeping of this secret affected the whole family right down to the current generation.  When the truth started to come out in the 1970s and Anne Lovell began to investigate the story, she and her cousins were amazed at the attitudes about a situation that no-one would bat an eyelid at today.  It was actually considered as far worse to be an unmarried mother than the victim of a heinous crime.   CONNIE’S SECRET gives an absorbing insight into another era, an era from not that long ago. There is a lot more to the story to be discovered than I have revealed here.  The story is all the more poignant because this is a family member relating all the events around Connie and her family and how their impact continues to be felt by those who were involved, even today.