Author(s): Peter Hayne

Historical Fiction | Local/Independent Authors | New Releases

A Journey to The Patch, a novel by local author Peter Hayne, is described as an Adventure Story, a romance, and the story of a man determined to make his way in the world. Peter prefers to call it a work of FACT-ION; as like most historical drama, while the majority of the story is factual, there is no first hand evidence of conversation, much of which is imagined by the author.

However the story, set in the 1890s, is based on historical records including a 32 page letter, hand written by the author’s grandfather and quoted through the book, newspaper records, known family history, and the records of the Monbulk Historical Society, Honing (UK) Historical Society and Mackay Historical Society, among other sources.

 It tells the story of a twenty one year old from Norfolk UK immigrating firstly to Queensland, where he was indentured (in lieu of travel costs) by the Queensland Government to work on a sugar cane farm, and then eventually to Melbourne and the Dandenong Ranges.

A similar story could be attributed to many other early settlers in the Dandenong Ranges. This is one family’s story, but there are many others, surely, that are similar.

Peter was born at Ferntree Gully Bush Nursing Hospital, where he was attended by the well-known Dr Elef Jorgensen; and was educated at Kallista Primary and Upwey High Schools.

The book is supported by the Monbulk Historical Society, Rotary Monbulk & District, and Bendigo Community Bank Monbulk.