Adrian Hyland – February 7 2016

In commemoration of catastrophic bushfires:

Black Saturday (VIC) 7/2/2009
Ash Wednesday (VIC) & Ash Wednesday II (SA) 16/2/1983
Ash Wednesday (SA) 20/2/1980
Black Tuesday (TAS) 7/2/1967

Adrian studied classics and languages at the University of Melbourne and has been a teacher of English as a foreign language in Australia and China. He has worked in Indigenous communities and has been a songwriter, mine worker and outback station worker. He currently teaches at LaTrobe University. Adrian’s other published works include the prequel to Gunshot Road, Diamond Dove, in which Emily Tempest is introduced and becomes an amateur detective.

Kinglake-350
Text Publishing, 2011; ISBN 9781922182920
On 7 February, 2009, Roger Wood was the police officer in charge of Kinglake, at the epicentre of the worst bushfire disaster in Australia’s history, Black Saturday. As the firestorm engulfed the community, he risked his life, again and again, to try and save people. With the fire raging all around, he phoned home to warn his wife what was coming. She screamed that the fire had already hit their property then the line went dead. This is a book about grief, heroism and desolation. It takes a dramatic and compelling sequence of events on that day and weaves them into a picture of universal significance and deep fascination.

Gunshot Road
Text Publishing, 2010; ISBN 9781921656309
Emily Tempest is small, black, as snaky as a taipan’s tooth and the woman least likely ever to embark on a career in policing. But her old mate Superintendent Tom MacGillivray has persuaded her to sign on as the Aboriginal Community Police Officer for the outback (not to mention throwback) township of Bluebush. Then Tom is hospitalised and Emily finds herself working for a new bloke instead: an east-coast ring-in, a martinet called Cockburn. Being allergic both to authority and to keeping her big mouth shut, Emily is immediately at odds with the new boss. And the death at the Green Swamp Well Roadhouse only complicates things.