Pastures of the Blue Crane
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''Pastures of the Blue Crane'' is an Australian novel by
Hesba Fay Brinsmead Hesba Fay Brinsmead (''Hesba Fay Hungerford''; 15 March 1922 in Berambing, New South Wales – 24 November 2003 in Murwillumbah) was an Australian author of children's books and an environmentalist. Biography Upbringing Brinsmead's parents, ...
, published in 1964. The novel won the Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers in 1965. It was adapted for television in 1969. It has recently been reprinted due to renewed interest by University of Queensland Press in 2018.


Synopsis

The story opens in Melbourne, where Amaryllis Merewether, aged 16, is told her father has died and that she is to inherit his farm on the
North coast of New South Wales North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...
. There is a catch; the co-heir is the grandfather she never knew she had. The snooty schoolgirl and the ramshackle old pensioner are clearly at odds, yet both are curious about the farm and agree to take the train together and visit their property. The pair are captivated by the beautiful, almost tropical landscape, and soon its luxuriance begins to work its magic on lonely, isolated Ryl and tetchy Dusty. Too young for university, and with nothing else to do in the meantime, Ryl renovates the old farmhouse and makes of it the first real home she has ever had. She makes new friends, including the mysterious taxi driver, Perry. To her astonishment, she finds relatives her father never told her about ... and discovers why he kept them hidden.


Reception

''Pastures of the Blue Crane'' won the
Children's Book Council of Australia The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) is a not for profit organisation which aims to engage the community with literature for young Australians. The CBCA presents the annual Children's Book of the Year Awards to books of literary merit ...
's Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers in 1965 and the
Mary Gilmore Prize __NOTOC__ The Mary Gilmore Award is currently an annual Australian literary award for poetry, awarded by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature. Since being established in 1956 as the ACTU Dame Mary Gilmore Award, it has been awar ...
, and established its author's reputation. It remained popular into the 1970s and is again gaining popularity due to Brinsmead's ability to capture the unique feel of the landscape in the Tweed Valley in Northern NSW. Many have never forgotten first reading this book and the sight of a Blue Crane can still evoke these memories years later. Although the books undercurrents of mixed race shame and racial secrecy had caused the novel to fall from favour, it is now considered worthy of study in Secondary schools as a fascinating glimpse of a little-known episode in Australia's history, when Pacific Islanders were shipped in to work on plantations in NSW and Queensland.


Television

The book was adapted for television by the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
(ABC) in 1969. In August 2018 it was released on DVD for sale by ABC Library Sales after a resurgence in public interest. It was the most expensive production from the ABC drama department since ''
My Brother Jack ''My Brother Jack'' is a classic 1964 Australian novel by writer George Johnston. It is part of a trilogy centering on the character of David Meredith. The other books in the trilogy are ''Clean Straw for Nothing'' and ''A Cartload of Clay''. ...
'' in 1964, although the budget did not stretch to colour. Shooting took place in Sydney,
Murwillumbah Murwillumbah ( ) is a town in far north-eastern New South Wales, Australia, in the Tweed Shire, on the Tweed River. Sitting on the south eastern foothills of the McPherson Range in the Tweed Volcano valley, Murwillumbah is 848 km north-eas ...
, Terranora,
Coolangatta Coolangatta is a coastal suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It is the Gold Coast's southernmost suburb and it borders New South Wales. In the , Coolangatta had a population of 5,948 people. Geography Coolangatta and its ...
and Brisbane.Sue Milliken, ''Selective Memory: A Life in Film'', Hybrid 2013, p. 28 The house featuring in the television series is named "Lovat Brae" and was built by Thomas Fraser in 1904 and still exists today.


Cast


References


External links

*
TV adaptation
at
AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature), usually referred to simply as AustLit, is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration betwee ...
*Fan page https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofPasturesoftheBlueCrane/ {{Children's Book of the Year Award for Older Readers 1964 Australian novels Australian young adult novels Novels set in New South Wales CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award-winning works 1964 children's books