This is a fictional account of the early life of Clara Saunders, based on her own unfinished manuscript, which she called ‘Memories’. This handwritten document was mostly recorded in an old exercise book. After her death in 1956, the manuscript was transcribed and the typed pages are now bound and held in the J.S. Battye Library in Perth, Western Australia, under the title Notes from the Memories of Clara Saunders, by C. Paton – her married name at the time of her death.
Clara’s memories are clear, precise and very detailed. The historical facts contained therein have been verified using material held in the Coolgardie Museum, past issues of the Coolgardie Miner and the Perth Gazette, the archives of the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society, the Golden Mile Museum and Trove. However, I have at times needed to deviate from the historical facts in the interest of the narrative.
Among the many different versions of events in his life that Moondyne Joe himself related, it is almost impossible to sort fact from fiction. I have chosen to use the stories that I find most interesting, but also suit the purposes of my story.
In the case of the well-known bush poet Dryblower Murphy, there is more consistent evidence available, but I have brought his time as a resident of Coolgardie forward slightly to emphasise his friendship with Clara and his importance to the survival of the unique goldfields culture of that time.
I have made every effort to be true to Clara’s voice, and for this reason I have used some terms that would be regarded as sexist or racist today, but were part of everyday speech in the 1890s.
While Clara’s direct contact with the Wongatha people of the Yilgarn area was minimal, I believe it is significant to her story and shines a light on the wary, but initially tolerant, interactions between two very different groups of people. Sadly these cooperative first contacts did not survive the pressures of the rapidly expanding population of Coolgardie, which by 1901 had become the third largest town in Western Australia.