A Map of Farwell Creek

When I started to write this book, I had a vision in my head of Farwell Creek, based on the town of Bowenville, where I grew up. But the Creek isn’t Bowenville, so I decided very early in the writing process that I was going to have to map it out. I’m no artist, but everyone in the bush knows how to draw a ‘mud map‘.

I started with the main road and the pub – the two most important features in any bush town. As I introduced the characters in the book, I gave them homes… BUT…

Every book goes through a process of writing and re-writing. I quickly realised that I needed Bec to be able to see the school from her house. The answer – I moved the school. Likewise, the garage shifted to the other end of town… for a scene which I later edited out of the book.

In the drawing – the blue sketch is the original… the pink bits are the corrections I made about two months into writing the book.

As I continued to live in Farwell Creek with Bec and Hailey and Nick, the town became so firmly fixed in my mind, that I didn’t need to keep updating the map. So – webmaster John read the final text and came up with a true map of Farwell Creek – as it really is according to the book.

It’s quite some way from my original – but what did not change was the nature of the town and the people who live there. As someone once said of me – you can take the girl out of the bush, but you can’t take the bush out of the girl. Moving the occasional house will never change the nature of a bush town – or the people who live there.

KEY

• Return to The Bachelor And Spinster Ball
• Visit the town of Farwell Creek
• Sing the praises of the humble Australian Ute!
• Take a look at the Queensland Rural Fire Brigade in action