Dorothea died on 22 January 1886. Her passing was noted by Kate Keyser, a resident of King George Sound (Albany), Western Australia, from 1837 to 1886. She wrote in her diary: Old Dolly Pettit died today. A woman of property and yet it is said she died of neglect and starvation. Poor old thing she had no children to care for her.
Most of the events that occurred in the life of Dorothea Newell, or Dolly Pettit as she later became known, are true. Dorothea came out from England with her family to King George Sound in the early 1830s and died there in 1886.
The people mentioned in her story are also true. Their characters, however, are my own invention and in some cases I have created their backgrounds. The inspiration for the story was drawn from Western Australia’s Records of the Colonial Secretary’s Office, 1 August–30 September 1835 and from the Albany Court House Records 1834–1841.
The house where Dorothea died is now a popular restaurant in Albany. When this book was almost completed, I spoke to its current owners. They were unaware of the early history of the house. They claim it is haunted by a small grey-haired woman who sits by the fireplace in one of the front rooms and by a man who comes up from the sea and walks around the house to keep her safe.