Peter Butler – författare

This book is a timely reminder of Lachlan Macquarie''s importance to modern Australians''He was a Christian, a perfect gentleman, and a supreme legislator of the human heart. … Whenever the sculptor shall imagine a guardian angel for New South Wales and Van Diemen''s Land, the chisel of gratitude shall portray the beloved and majestic features of General Macquarie.'' Hobart Town Gazette In 1810 Lachlan Macquarie became governor of New South Wales. He ruled the colony for twelve years, during which time its fate lay in the balance after years of famine and strife, culminating in a coup against its previous governor, William Bligh. The story of Macquarie''s governorship is in many ways the story of early Australian history. No other governor etched his identity so indelibly on his times, nor left his name so well represented on Australian maps. Macquarie''s term encompassed the key events of our country''s crucial third decade of existence, and his governorship accelerated its progress from a jail to a colony of settlement, and from despotism to democracy. Unsurprisingly, the personal story of Macquarie''s years is just as absorbing: a tale of aspirations fulfilled followed by a devastating fall from grace. This book is a timely reminder of Lachlan Macquarie''s importance to modern Australians. It is a fascinating story of the genesis of a nation and of an extraordinary individual who refused to be confounded by the odds stacked against him.

Twelve-year-old Toby and his sister Millie, fourteen, are tramping the Heaphy Track with their mother when they go off-track to find an old surveyor's hut their grandfather used. When their mother breaks her leg in a hidden hole the kids set off back to fetch help. They spend some nights alone, hungry and lost. So far, so ordinary, but there is something strange about the cave they've camped next to.

A little woman emerges and draws them in with the promise of food and shelter. They enter an underground cavern that is deeper than they first thought and where a whole tribe lives. These people believe in natural law, not human law, and have deliberately hidden away from humans believing that here they can survive a total war or pandemic. The kids are intrigued by the techniques this strange people have used to survive but this is tempered by the growing realisation that the Tribe don't want them to leave...