My Town Magazine, Discover Queensland Edition 8th September 2014 Edition 41 | Page 60

SandCliffe Writers
Festival 2014 by Breanda Cross

T

he 11th century philosopher believed
in the simple life. Something many of us
strive for in this busy world, but do not
achieve. So with the last weekend of winter
behind us, and spring ahead, the poet’s sentiments are equally appropriate to a comfy chair
under the shade of a tree as much as in front of
a warm cosy fire.
The Sandcliffe Festival provided the opportunities to not only purchase some good books, but
hear from the writers, of the long and weary
road associated in writing them.

The bizarre circumstances involved in the
research of Stephen Bishop’s, expose on Police
Commissioner, Frank Bischof, The Most DanDetective,
A jug of wine, a loaf of gerousmaterial he were as interesting
as the
uncovered. Stephen
bread and …. a good took us not only through the police
corruption scandals from the 1930’s
book.”
right up to the Fitzgerald Inquiry, but
also the extraordinary circumstanc(With apologies to
es surrounding the availability of the
Omah Khayam)
formal documentation on Bischof.
Some may well remember the “Australian outrage leading to an inquiry,” back in
2011, when all the files were first found to be
missing, then revealed for public scrutiny, (and
now locked away again.) The Archivist has since
insisted the information “must not be used,”
said Stephen with a grin. “And of course I won’t
use it, because it’s already in the book.”
Lingering Doubts, by Janice Teunis and Deb
Drummond is partially about “An ordinary
family holding an extraordinary secret.” It’s also
about rape, murder, a questionable suicide, and
police corruption. The cousins only became
aware of this in 2005, and immediately realised
the immense burden their parents had carried
for so long. So by careful research they began
to delve into the 67 year old case in an attempt
to resolve some of the questions and many
discrepancies of their grandfathers’ conviction.
Stephen’s earlier account of police corruption

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simply gave extra credibility to the writers’
claims that not only was their grandfather
innocent, and the investigation full of ridiculous
deviations in evidence, but there was good reason to suppose members of the 1940’s police
force had gone out of their way to charge an
innocent man.
A change of pace and style after morning tea,
gave us the opportunity to meet with the delightful Aunt Ruth Hegarty, an indigenous writer
of extraordinary character. While she had
us almost in tears one minute hearing about
her woeful childhood as a Dormitary Girl at
Cherbourg, she had us laughing the next, as she
spoke frankly of some of the twists of her life
that came about due to her bold spirit..
“How can you not be bitter and twisted after
such treatment?” was a question asked from
the floor.
“Because it’s all behind me,” was the simple
answer. “Once I write about it, it just becomes
a story.”
Such a story won her the 1998 David Unaipon
Award in 1998 when she was 70 years young,
and there have been many since then. Jack’s
Story, and Suffer the Children are her latest.
The Sandcliffe Festival is an amalgam between
Shorncliffe and Sandgate, and puts a strong
focus on Indigenous writers, as could be seen
from other aspects of the weekend programme,
including Sam Watson, another award winner.
While the two conveners, Cheryl Jorgenson
and Adele Moy must be congratulated on their
eclectic mix for the weekend events, we should
be aware that is comes with the financial support of many local government contributors.
We are fortunate that this area is enriched by
not only such generous financial support, but
the energies of so many people keen to provide
us with opportunities to inform and entertain
ourselves – all for free.
With the cold of winter behind me, I look forward to the summer to find the shade of a tree,
a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit. Not quite
as eloquent as Omar Khayam, but I’m sure I’ll
enjoy that with the addition of one of these
excellent books, I’ll enjoy it just the same.