‘I revelled in this history of the town: a book teeming with characters and incident…The world might be a global village, but a village has always contained a whole world of stories.’ Peter Goldsworthy, AM, award-winning author of Maestro
‘A deep sense of family, community and country permeate this beautifully produced book…If you are interested in the story of Australia, of the warp and weft of community, and the quirks and characters that underpin a uniquely country sensibility, Growing up Moonta is an excellent book to add to your collection..’ OUTback magazine
Growing up Moonta won the TT Reed Award from the SA Genealogy and Heraldry Society for the best family history book published in 2017.
About the Book
Growing up Moonta is the memoir of an Australian country town, entwined with four generations of family history.
Told through the childhood reminiscences of Weidenbach’s father, Neil, it paints a picture of a time when an illegitimate child was raised as a sister to her mother, travelling salesmen made a living hawking dressmakers’ pins and bottles of antiseptic salve, and boys grew to men lumping bags of wheat and tending engines in the town power houses of the 1930s.
Young Neil and his forebears absorbed the quirky anecdotes of South Australia’s famous copper-mining town—from the infamous murders and the boys who went to war, to the rhythms of everyday life such as the butcher carving meat at the back of his horse and cart, and the women competing on Mondays to hang their washing on the line first.
Growing up Moonta transports readers to a time not so long ago, but a way of life long passed; a place redolent with nostalgia that lives on in the stories of our parents and grandparents.
listen to Kristin’s interview with Richard Fidler on ABC Conversations
buy at Shakespeare’s book shop
email Kristin for a signed copy