The
title of this book is certainly a little tongue in cheek, and
although technically accurate, is slightly geographically adrift.
During the manned years, Barranjoey was a fixed red light,
kerosene powered, but Palm Beach did not come into existence
as a locality name, until some decades after the red light
commenced shining during the night.
Many of those keepers were ex-sailors, and surely knew the significance of
the red light districts in their port of calls. However, at sea, a red light
was a beacon of hope and safety, and Barranjoey, located between the white
lights of Macquarie to the south and Norah Head to the north, identified the
entrance to Broken Bay. The southern side of Broken Bay, where Barranjoey is
located, was safer to enter than the northern side, which, guarded by bomboras
(East and West reefs) and mostly awash, sunk the paddle steamer Maitland in
1898.
This book is the second of the Barranjoey quartet which I will write, and it
is a historical record, not a novel. It even has touches of a memoir. The first
book was named Tales From Barranjoey, and was written at Cottage 2 of Barranjoey
lighthouse, then published in 1992.
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Foreword by TOM KENEALLY
In the days when Jervis and Bridget were the inhabitants, stewards
and living spirits of Barranjoey, we were always up there, looking
at the greatest view in New South Wales. Sometimes we camped up
there and, whether it was Easter or not, Jervis put on Easter egg
hunts around the old lighthouse residence and in the crannies between
rocks for my daughters, Margaret and Jane, and told us tales of
the ghost of Barranjoey, the first lighthouse-keeper George Mulhall.
It was a place of light and magic, and no one is better placed
to tell its stories and interpret its mysteries than Jervis Sparks.
Friend, I recommend this book to your affectionate attention.
Tom Keneally
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