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They called me The Wildman
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the prison diary of Henricke Nelsen
(Pier 9) Hardcover
Available at major
Australian booksellers.
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Henricke Nelsen depicted in his dwelling cave, on Mt Tallarook.
The Australasian Sketcher, 1880
- Selected
for the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge,
2009, 2010
- Shortlisted for S.A. Premier's Literature
Festival
Awards, 2010 (one of six in Fiction category, won
by David Malouf).
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“I Henricke Nelsen lately of
the Tallarooks, do hereby take it upon myself to write…”
Thus begins Nelsen’s account of his strange and secret life hidden
in the Tallarook Ranges. Here the Swede built an underground
dwelling carefully concealing the entrance with a slab of stone –
and he lived there undetected for some fourteen years until
discovered in 1880. He was charged with vagrancy and sentenced to
six months gaol, hard labour.
Twelve years earlier, the convict
Owen Suffolk kept a prison diary and his experiences were published
in The Australasian newspaper. And so it is that a warder at the
Geelong Gaol (Owen Suffolk was notorious in this region) encourages
Nelsen to keep a diary of his own. He tells of the
mysterious 'mad' Dr Yarrow, of Reverend Niall who served a prison term
for molesting a sailor, of several famous artists who were in the
area including Louis Buvelot – arguably Australia’s most famous
colonial artist – Harry Power the bushranger who was operating on
the highway directly opposite Nelsen’s haunt, the local Aboriginal
people and many others.
No imaginary work could arrange a
better cast of characters – yet Henricke Nelsen and all these
people are real historical figures who were in the area at this time.
This story painstakingly preserves actual names, dates, places and
events to tell a real life adventure about colonial life that is as
credible as it is historically informative.
REVIEWS: Sydney Morning
Herald; Canberra Times;
The Melbourne Age
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© Robert Hollingworth
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