RENOWNED Australian rural romance writer Victoria Purman has launched her latest novel at the Millicent Public Library last week.
The launch promoted the award-nominated author’s eleventh book “The Last of the Bonegilla Girls” and attracted the interest of around 20 locals.
Ms Purman gave insight to where she found inspiration when writing and spoke of personal experiences and her family.
The author said ideas for book writing came from “a whole range of places”.
“This one – the idea of writing the book about the Bonegilla girls – had been brewing my whole life,” she said.
“I am first generation Australian and both my parents were born in Europe and I grew up knowing the word, Bonegilla.
“It was just a word I knew in my head, but I did not really know what it was.
“I knew it was a place my mum had been and funnily enough my dad had been, but six years apart.
“The other thing that inspired the book was the death notices in The Advertiser.
“I was an ABC journalist and one of the jobs of the early morning reporter was to check the obituaries in the paper.
“All those people that are passing, what happens to their stories?”
Ms Purman added that third inspiration was found after she attended her uncle Mick’s funeral.
She said it was not until his funeral that she heard the true story of what happened to him at war and from this she encouraged those attending to share their stories and memories to keep their family history alive for years to follow.
“Why do we save all the stories for funerals?” she said.
“We need to know them.
“My grandparents died when I was 25 so they have been gone half my life and I was not curious about their stories when I was that young.
“I have an almost 24-year-old now and I can see that lack of curiosity, but I wish I had talked to my grandparents more.
“I did not ask them about their stories.”
The Last of the Bonegilla Girls follows the story of three girls of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds post World War II.
It is set in the multicultural Australia of the fifties at Bonegilla, the first home in Australia for some 300,000 migrants from over 50 countries.
