About

Hi, I’m Lynne.

I am an Australian author, artist and historian. Recently, I’ve been writing historical novels, but I used to write history books about shipwrecks and submarines, draw and paint people’s portraits and play the bagpipes.

My mother said that, when I was a little child, she heard me muttering away to myself. When asked what I was doing, I replied ‘I’s telling I’s self a story’. I was a dreamy kid and went on telling myself stories all through my younger years, never believing if I wrote them down, other people might enjoy them. I’d always loved drawing, and was good at it, so, I studied art, working as a graphic designer, and semi-professionally as a portraitist.

It wasn’t until my children were at school, and I went to university, that I discovered I could write stuff that made sense to other people. History was my subject, especially social history. When, armed with a postgraduate qualification, I got a wonderful job with the Western Australian Museum, I co-wrote a book about shipwrecks, and, as a sole author, a history of Fremantle’s World War II submarine base. In 2012 the museum published my revised edition, Secret Fleets. Like its predecessor, it found an international readership and is still available.

Meanwhile, researching the lives of women in Western Australia’s Swan River Colony for my Masters, I became obsessed with the challenges those new settlers faced, arriving by sailing ship in a largely unexplored land, where there were no roads, no towns or villages, just strange plants and animals, and a topsy-turvy climate. Their first challenge, however, was getting to this remote colony over a thousand miles from the settled part of Australia. Sea travel was slow, uncomfortable and dangerous. So, I wrote Cast Away for young readers, where shipwreck leaves a young girl alone on the unexplored south coast.

Where Black Swans are Flying, for a general readership, follows a similar theme. I was interested in first contact stories and admired the ingenuity and resilience of the people who had lived here for thousands of years, so both girls owe their lives to indigenous people, learning some of the Noongar language and way of life.

For my new historical novel, Gold Town, a tale of Australia’s Wild West, we move on half a century. Gold brought thousands of prospectors from across the world streaming into Western Australia’s harsh interior, where water could be rarer than gold. For some the search brought no riches, just a lonely death from thirst. Of the shanty towns that sprung up, soon to become boom towns, few remain, but Hannans, which became Kalgoorlie, is still one of world’s leading gold producers.

This is where we meet Nora Patterson who has travelled over a thousand miles to join her husband. He’s not there. Alone and broke, Nora is befriended by Ben Drummond and widowed Mary O’Callaghan. She finds work at the makeshift hospital, but Ned still doesn’t come. And an unseen danger stalks the town. When murder strikes, is Nora in danger? And can Ben save her?

When not going down historical rabbit holes researching, I write poetry and short stories and am working on illustrating my children’s picture books. In my spare time, (what spare time?) I still paint.