PHILIP McLAREN

West of Eden

The Real Man from Snowy River

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Philip McLaren tells his story using what he terms a docu-fiction narrative. It’s about a young aboriginal Australian who rode the high plateaus and steep-mountain gorges chasing brumbies. His feats became legendary, documented and dated about two years before Paterson began writing his iconic poem after visiting the region gathering material. Paterson’s only description of ‘the man’ is that he is a ‘stripling’.

 

While this story is about Toby, it also features Kurnai leader, Bunjileenee and Lauren Tucker, the enigmatic white woman, his consort for life, who in real life he rescued from a shipwreck on his tribal beach at the mouth of the Snowy River; as well as the settlement of Gippsland, Victoria and celebrated explorer Angus McMillan who has at least eight monuments erected in his honour, and with his gang of vigilantes was responsible for the slaughter of hundreds of Snowy River families.

 

It’s about chasing and breaking brumbies for cavalry use in India and the Omeo gold rush; professional foot running and portraits of the real-life characters from that time and place. It is also a love story; Aboriginals Toby and Louise wrestle with how they might fit into the new Australia of British imperialism.

 

Most of all, it is the story of one young man’s feat of such outstanding horsemanship that, masked, he entered Australian history, literature and legend.

Sydney Morning Herald

Writing as evocative as Walter Mosley's series about the black ghettos of Los Angeles. High praise but McLaren deserves it.

     

The Australian Book Review

McLaren has a film producer's sense of the dramatic, presented in quick grabs, and with lots of mini-climaxes.

 

LIRE - le Magazine Littéraire (France)

Philip McLaren is one of the few Aboriginal fiction authors to make his voice heard in Australian literature. His stories run more than the pulse.