About the Author

Peter was born in 1945 in Mudgee, NSW, Australia, to working class parents. His father on the railway, his mother off the land.

Australia faced great change in the years after the Second World War. Soldiers came home, often to uncertainty, re-joining their families, strangers after many years away, having communicated only by letter. The uncertainty was catching and those left behind, mothers, children and essential workers, all worried about their future.

Peter's father was also motivated by memories of the Great Depression and would always put his job first. His family moved around, following the needs of the railway, his father wanting to be sure he could in turn, meet the needs of his growing family.

The family finally settled on the Blue Mountains, West of Sydney and the family home remained in the same town until the death of Peter's parents in the late 90's. In the fifties and sixties, settlement of the Blue Mountains was more a string of towns, loosely coupled by a good railway line and bad roads.

Bush fires were a constant summer hazard, the next uncontrollable blaze heralded by a huge black and white cloud of smoke on the horizon and the peal of the town's fire warning siren, signalling a call to arms. Many a summer walk in the bush was curtailed by the smell of smoke and the certain knowledge that the bush was no longer safe.

Peter and his siblings eventually moved away to the cities as did many children at the time, chasing the dream of fortune and the need of working security instilled by their parents. Peter moved to Sydney, where he quickly found a place in the burgeoning IT industry. He married, had children and settled in various suburbs, never moving more than a few kilometres from the heart of the city.

For his father, the Blue Mountains were a poor substitute for the land west and there were frequent family trips back to the country around Bathurst to visit family and friends, or to relive his youth, hunting rabbits and gold. On those trips, there were poems and tall tales told around the camp fire, imbuing in Peter a love of the bush, its heritage and its lore. The subject of Peter's great grandfather came up from time to time, but so little was known about him that there was little else to say other than "he disappeared around the turn of the century". Still, enough was said that when the time was available, Peter explored family history and became intrigued by the idea that someone could just disappear. Family history said that he "took a mob of horses to Sydney. His belongings came back on the train, but there was nothing more ever heard from him". It was rumoured that the family spent time looking for him, especially one of his sons. The idea of the William Stewart Saga was born. Most of the Saga is made up, but it's based on real people and real events.

The first we actually know about William is his marriage in Orange in 1864. Thereafter, there are references to the births, marriages and deaths of his children and much of the last book is based on those events. We recently lost one of his descendants who remembered her mother, William's daughter talking about her father. Apparently, he had some favourite sayings and even though he could neither read nor write, he spoke like an educated man.

Particular recollected sayings were:

"It's a strange town where nobody lives and dogs bark at strangers."

"There won't be peace in the world until we have a catholic king and a protestant pope."

Like so many of that era, William Stewart came into the world with nothing and some would say, left with nothing. No headstone, no marker, no footprints and only descendants. Yet those descendants are testimony to his time here and who is to say the world is not a better place for his passing?