Band of Gold
(HarperCollins Publishers NZ, 2010) # 1 Bestseller
It’s 1854, and the Katipo is moored in Melbourne’s Yarra River being overhauled. Her cargo has been sold and there is plenty of money, until Kitty discovers that Rian has just spent most of it on a claim on the Ballarat goldfields. So off they go – Kitty, Rian, their 14-year-old daughter Amber and the Katipo’s entire crew – to try their hands at gold mining.
Ballarat is wild and verging on lawless, and digging for the precious gold is more challenging than expected. Finally, though, Rian and the crew’s muddy endeavours begin to pay off. Kitty reconnects with old friend Flora Langford and goes into business with her, and also encounters flamboyant Lily Pearce, owner of a seedy Ballarat bawdy-house, who, to Kitty’s ire, sets her cap at Rian.
Then everything begins to unravel. Protest against the colonial government is on the rise and the military arrive. One day, Amber goes missing, then Rian is at the centre of a fatal tragedy that drives Kitty to make a terrible mistake. Terrified that she has lost her husband forever, she embarks on a mad dash to Melbourne to seek the help of powerful Chinese businessman Wong Kai, and pays a price that may almost be too big to bear.