The Mallee pioneers.(The Other Side of Sunset: Memories of One of the Last True Pioneer Settlements in Victoria)(Book review)

The Other Side of Sunset: Memories of One of the Last True Pioneer Settlements in Victoria, by Campbell Curtis; Campbell Curtis, 2008, $27.50.

WE HAVE ALL heard stories of a lucky boot dislodging a clod of earth, to reveal a shining gold nugget underneath. One gets a similar sensation upon opening Campbell Curtis's The Other Side of Sunset. (Not that the book itself in any way resembles a clod; self-published, its design, production and readability are all well up to the standards of many paperbacks issued today by big-name publishers.)

The subtitle precisely defines the subject: Memories of One of the Last True Pioneer Settlements in Victoria. it is a plain-language account of Millewa County. (Note: not Millawa, which is a winegrowing region elsewhere in the state.) The story is told intimately from the inside, because Curtis's father pioneered a virgin block among uncleared Mallee-covered lands, and his son returned there to carry it on. Millewa is--very roughly--up where the Murray River and the South Australian border form a sort of comer; Mildura is the nearest main centre.

As the settlers frequently took possession of their blocks almost wholly timber-covered, the first thing was to cut a clearing for the "house", which would be a bare frame of fresh-cut poles of Murray pine, covered with a plain roof of galvanised iron. Walls (internal partitions, too, if such luxuries were allowed) were mostly of sacks, heavily coated with whitewash. The floor was of earth, smoothed and trampled flat. The pine poles showed that, just occasionally, Man and Nature could work hand-in-hand, for the timber was shapely and handy-sized, but above all remained for decades proof against the ravages of white ants.

As a little spare time and spare cash would allow, dwellings would be improved and extended, usually to accommodate growing families. But often the original basic structure could still be discerned thirty years later.

Horses supplied personal transport and motive power for the farm machinery. How Curtis loved them! He gives us character sketches of some of them by name--the majestic draughts that pulled the plough, and the livelier ponies that carried him and his sisters to school. He grieves still for the family's amazingly sagacious border collie sheepdog, Rover, who had at last to be put down with a merciful bullet. The parson told Curtis that, lacking a soul, Rover could not go to heaven. Curtis: "If old Rover has no place in heaven then they can keep it, it's not a caring place."

Though his account is strung along the thread of first-hand personal experience, the author's completeness of understanding, his wider reading and his clear writing create a true history of his district which will hardly be surpassed by even the most learned and discerning professional historian. More broad-ranging studies of Victorian land settlement policies, land use, developing agricultural techniques, the extension of roads, railways, medical and social services and education can all be tested by a quick reference to The Other Side of Sunset.