This collection brings together the three short novels previously published, "Country Calling", "Justin's Quest" and "Confluence", together with "Whispers in the Wind", a collection of eight short stories bringing the family story up to 2023, just before the referendum to include the First Nations Voice in the Australian Constitution.
The Shangri-la story reveals much of the veiled history of the colonisation of Australia, and hopefully provides a greater understanding of the struggle of First Nations people to be recognized as the original inhabitants of Australia.
The story is told in the first book from the point of view of the white pastoralist family, but by the second and third books we begin to see the history through the eyes of Djet, as well as through the experiences of Justin. "Whispers in the Wind" is not exactly a sequel; the time span covered allows for only a series of vignettes to show how the family's fortunes progressed.
It is my hope that these books provide a progressive understanding of our shared history without promoting the reluctance to know the truth that a more strident approach sometimes elicits.