Judy Nunn - Territory

From stage actor and international television star to blockbuster, best-selling author, Judy Nunns career has been meteoric.

Her first forays into adult fiction resulted in what she describes as her entertainment set. The Glitter Game , Centre Stage and Araluen , three novels set in the worlds of television, theatre and film respectively, each became an instant bestseller.

Next came her city set. Kal , a fiercely passionate novel about men and mining set in Kalgoorlie; Beneath the Southern Cross , a mammoth achievement chronicling the story of Sydney since first European settlement; and Territory , a tale of love, family and retribution set in Darwin. Territory took Australia by storm, making Judy one of the nations top-selling fiction writers, and her following novel, Pacific , set principally in Vanuatu, met with equal success.

Her next work, Heritage , a thriller based in the 1950s and set in the Snowies during the construction of the massive Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, embraces post-war immigration and the birth of multiculturalism. The resounding critical and commercial success of Heritage has consolidated Judys position as one of this countrys leading fiction writers. Floodtide , Judys ninth novel, is set in the Iron Ore State, Western Australia, and reveals, through three decades, the loss of innocence of a population caught up in the greed and avarice of the mining boom.

Judy Nunns fame as a novelist is spreading rapidly. Her books are now published throughout Europe in English, German, French, Dutch and Czech.

Judy lives with her husband, actor-author Bruce Venables, on the Central Coast of New South Wales.

By the same author

The Glitter Game

Centre Stage

Araluen

Kal

Beneath the Southern Cross

Pacific

Heritage

Floodtide

Maralinga

Childrens fiction

Eye in the Storm

Eye in the City

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Territory

ePub ISBN 9781742742205
Kindle ISBN 9781742742212

An Arrow Book
Published by Random House Australia
Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney, NSW 2060
www.randomhouse.com.au

Sydney New York Toronto
London Auckland Johannesburg

First published by Random House Australia 2002
This Arrow edition published 2003, 2007

Copyright Judy Nunn 2002

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry

Nunn, Judy.
Territory.

ISBN 978 1 74166 595 6 (pbk.).

I. Title.

A823.3

CONTENTS

To my brother Robert Marshall Nunn, with gratitude not only for his invaluable assistance, but for his encouragement and belief in this book. And to our mother Nancy, who inspired in us both a fascination for the history of the Batavia .

I would especially like to thank my husband, Bruce Venables, my agent, James Laurie, and my friends and work mates at Random House, Jane Palfreyman, Kim Swivel and Emma Rusher.

A special thanks also to Major Tony Young, Susan Mackie, Robyn Gurney, Dr Grahame Hookway, Ben Taylor and Maarten Smies.

For assistance in the research of Darwin and the Northern Territory my thanks to the following: Phil Jackson and Anna Johnson of the Northern Territory News , George Manolis of Dymocks Books in Darwin, Dr Ella Stack, Carrie Elton, Katrina Foong Lim, Danny Thomas, Gerry Blitner, Eddie Quong, Brett Midena, Norman Fry, and members of Darwins Chung Wah Society, Adam Lowe, Eric Lee and Albert Chan, who were most receptive to my visit and most helpful with my queries.

Amongst my many research sources, I would particularly like to recognise the following publications:

Amsterdam , Hans Koning, Time Life International, 1978.

Batavia , Philippe Godard, Abrolhos Publishing, 1993.

Islands of Angry Ghosts , Hugh Edwards, Hodder & Stoughton, 1966.

The Territory , Ernestine Hill, Angus & Robertson, 1955.

The Surveyors , Margaret Goyder Kerr, Rigby, 1971.

Hell West and Crooked , Tom Cole, Collins, 1988.

Sitdown Up North , Ted Egan, Kerr Publishing, 1997.

The articles of historian Peter Forrest, published in the Northern Territory News .

As a schoolchild I was taught of the many battles in which our brave troops fought and lost their lives. Of Gallipoli, the Somme, Tobruk, El Alamein, the list goes on.

Like most Australians, I was never told of the bombing of Darwin and the consequent battle which raged in the Top End.

Historians believe that the final figure of 243 dead in the bombing is not only conservative, but decidedly incorrect. The true casualty figure is estimated to be in excess of 500.

In memory of those who lost their lives on 19 February 1942, when Australia experienced warfare upon its own soil.

Lieutenant Akira Nakajima felt a deep pride at the spectacle which surrounded him. The clear blue sky of early morning was alive with action. Threatening, lethal and all-powerful. Through his cockpit windows Akira could see Val dive-bombers, just like his. And Kate high-level bombers. And Zero fighters. Two hundred and forty-two aircraft in all. A magnificent sight. Today would be another splendid victory for the Japanese Imperial Air Force. He glanced to his right and shared a smile with his young copilot who grinned back, barely able to contain his own excitement.

Toshiro Kurasoto was honoured to be a member of Nakajimas team. Lieutenant Nakajima had been a bomber commander in the force which had so triumphantly attacked Pearl Harbor. It was most regrettable that the Lieutenants regular copilot had been wounded in the attack, Toshiro had agreed, but silently he had thanked the gods for his own good fortune. Soon he, Toshiro Kurasoto, barely twenty-three years of age, would share a similar glory to that of the heroes of Pearl Harbor.

Through their headsets nothing could be heard but the muffled throb of the powerful engines. Since their departure from Ambon, radio silence had been maintained, but it would not be long before their headsets would be crackling with the voices of command.

Paul Trewinnard leaned back in his large wicker armchair, sipped at his tea, and looked out across the harbour from the windows of his room on the first floor of the Hotel Darwin. The overhead ceiling fan created the comforting illusion of breeze, but at barely nine oclock in the morning the air was already hot and still, clammy with the humidity of the monsoon season. Today was his birthday, 19 February. Born shortly after the turn of the century, he was forty-two years old today and he felt every bit of it. No, that wasnt at all true, he felt twenty years older.