Portfolio
Minnie
The inspiring story of a feisty pioneering woman who sought freedom and adventure in the outback and became the first woman to work as an opal miner in Australia.
Only a slip of a girl, Minnie could match any man in stamina, perseverance and strength. She arrived in Coober Pedy when essential supplies still arrived by camel, and water was so scarce no-one washed. Together with the other miners, she braved the heat, the flies and the dust. Every day she waited for that special sound the pick made when it cracked opal.
The first woman to dig her own shafts in the Australian opal fields, Minnie began her working life as a typist in London. But she and her younger brother Victor sought freedom and adventure in the 1920s and found plenty of it in the outback.
Shot Down
The first full telling of what happened to MH17 and the stories of those who were killed on that tragic day.
Subsequently it was shown that the airliner was almost certainly hit by a Buk surface-to-air missile fired by Ukrainian separatists aided by the Russian military. The debris from the plane's disintegration mid-air was spread over 50 square kilometres, but for weeks rescue teams and investigators were denied access. The Russians have refused to take any responsibility for the deaths.
This is the story of some of the people who boarded that fatal flight and the conflict below them that was doomed to destroy their lives and the happiness of the people they left behind. The fullest account yet published, it is also the story of a continuing clamour for justice. Unsettling, compelling and revealing, Shot Down will provoke both outrage that this criminal act could have happened and deep sadness for the lives lost.
Bomber Boys
The unknown story of a unique RAAF squadron, its men and its mission to halt the Japanese advance in the Pacific.
Bomber Boys is the extraordinary and little known story of more than 100 Dutch airmen, stranded in Australia with no country to return to, who were joined by a contingent of Australians to make up the RAAF's No. 18 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron. Formed in Canberra in April 1942, the squadron flew operational coastal patrols before eventually being relocated to the secret MacDonald Airfield, north of Pine Creek in the Northern Territory, and eventually Batchelor, near Darwin.
This is, however, more than a story about the 900 bombing raids, reconnaissance missions and attacks on Japanese shipping that the squadron flew in its three years of existence under Australian control. At its heart, is a powerful and compelling story of a group of very different men, thrown together for a common purpose, and the strange and sometimes difficult friendships they formed.
Missing In Action
Australia's World War I Grave Services, an astonishing true story of misconduct, fraud and hoaxing
Poor leadership, mismanagement, quarrels, distrust and accusations of hoaxing ... this is the story of what happened after the guns were laid down and Australians tried to find their war dead.
Lieutenant Robert Burns was one of the missing, and now that the guns had fallen silent his father wanted to know what had become of his son. He wasn't the only one looking for answers. A loud clamour arose from Australia for information and the need for the dead to be buried respectfully.
Many of the Australians charged with the grisly task of finding and reburying the dead were deeply flawed. Each had his own reasons for preferring to remain in France instead of returning home. In the end there was a great scandal, with allegations of 'body hoaxing' and gross misappropriation of money and army possessions leading to two highly secretive inquiries.
Untold until now, Missing in Action is the compelling and unexpected story of those dark days and darker deeds and a father's desperate search for his son's remains.
Author bio:
Marianne van Velzen was born in the Netherlands but grew up in Australia. In her late teens she emigrated back to Europe and later became a journalist. She has a life-long interest in Australia and is the author of Call of the Outback, published in 2016, and Bomber Boys, published in 2017.
Call of the Outback
The remarkable story of Ernestine Hill,nomad journalist and writer
After the birth of her illegitimate son, Ernestine Hill abandoned her comfortable urban life as a journalist for a nomadic one, writing about this country's vast interior and bringing the outback into the popular imagination of Australians.
Throughout the 1930s Ernestine's hugely popular stories about Australia's remotest regions appeared in newspapers and journals around the nation. She still remains famous for her bestselling books The Great Australian Loneliness, The Territory, Flying Doctor Calling and My Love Must Wait.
Call of the Outback provides a vivid portrait of Ernestine, from the early brilliance she showed as a child in Brisbane to her later life. In particular it evokes Ernestine's larger-than-life personality, the exotic landscapes she explored and the remarkable characters she met on her travels.
The Diamond Dakota Mystery
Juliet Wills
Co-author: Marianne van Velzen
During the evacuation of java in March 1942 a Dutch/Russian pilot was attacked by Jpanese zero's near the Australian coast. He was heading for the small town of Broome in the north of Australia. He was carrying a large amount of diamonds along with his passengers and crew. The plane crashed on the beach at Carnot Bay. The survivors were trapped on the beach for five days. They were eventually rescued but the diamonds were lost. For the first time a Dutch and an Australian journalist combine the facts to tell what really happened.
One Day
Documentary by Marianne van Velzen and Ronald Vierbergen.
One Day tells the story of the Japanese raid on the small Australian town of Broome on the 3rd of March 1942. A number ofDutch flyingboats were waiting to be refuled in the bay. The airoplanes were full of evacuees from Java. During the raid many Dutch civilians were killed.
