CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Castlecraig still stands high on the hill overlooking the Hamilton Reach of the Brisbane River. It was purchased by the British Far Eastern Steam Navigation Company when Clare Stonehouse returned to her native Scotland in the summer of 1894. Afterwards, the great limestone house became the official residence of successive Australian general managers of the company.

The first was Charles Worthington-Jones, who became a major shareholder in the company as a result of his wife's death. But after serving only one year in his position, he journeyed to Hampshire in England where he married Vivian Stokes. He never returned to Queensland.

All doors in the colony were closed to Silas Moser after his humiliation at Castlecraig on the first day of August in 1893. He retreated in disgrace to his home in Toowong and became a virtual recluse, and was never seen again beyond the confines of his well-tended gardens.

The labor trade was finally outlawed in Queensland in 1912, twenty-seven years after the findings of the 1885 Royal Commission inquiring into blackbirding had described the practice as 'a terrible indictment of deceit, cruelty, treachery, deliberate kidnapping, and cold-blooded murder'.

In 1912, the Commonwealth of Australia, the fledgling government of the new federation of Australian states, decreed that all Melanesians be deported to their islands of origin, including thousands who were born in Australia.

There were few exceptions to the edict, but Kiri, Sky and Christine Luk were among them.Ben Luk and his family, under the untiring care of Mrs Llewellyn, made bricks beside the Brisbane River for decades—as did the generations that followed them.

END

David Crookes was born in Southampton, England. After living in Canada for twenty-three years he moved to Queensland, Australia with his wife and children. He has worked in many occupations,as a farm hand,factory worker,lumber-mill worker, costing
surveyor,salesman,contractor,oilfield and construction industry executive and as a small business owner. He now writes fulltime. His travels have taken him to many parts of the world and his particular passion, apart from writing is single-handed ocean sailing.

His novels include: Blackbird -The Light Horseman's Daughter-Someday Soon Children of the Sun-Redcoat-Borderline-Great Spirit Valley