The past editor of the Mountain Views would like to introduce her new book to the Yarra Valley community.
Mrs Frances Henke, who worked as a Mountain Views editor from October 1986 to January 1989, published a new book The Poet and The River.
The Poet and The River is an adventure about young people seeking the source of the Yarra River.
They face many challenges presented by the Australian bush and learn how to work as a team.
Mrs Henke said the book is bound up with Mountain Views, as she put her passion for seeing the source of the Yarra River into practice while editing the local newspaper.
“When I was at Mountain Views, I became interested in the source of the Yarra. And David Fleay, who was the photographer at Mountain Views, took me out to Ship Rock Waterfall to see a tributary spurting out of a rock because I had the romantic notion that’s how rivers started,” she said.
“This was a big adventure for an old Polio kid because I wasn’t able to go bushwalking or any of that, but I still wanted to know about the source of the Yarra, so I was talking to Board of Works guys, and they got three four-wheel drives, and off we went up Mount Baw Baw to find the source of the Yarra River. It was just magic. It was amazing.
“I’d never been through such countryside and in that sort of environment with experts in native flora and all that sort of thing. I’d written 12 gardening books by then, so I had a bit of a handle on native plants. But seeing them out there was just phenomenal.”
Mrs Henke, living at Chum Creek at the time, wrote features on the trip for Mountain Views and later Melbourne’s afternoon newspaper The Herald.
Then, as her working life changed after being sacked from her Mountain Views editor position, she wrote a fictional version for young people about finding not only the source of a river but also how to cope with nature’s crises, which has become The Poet and The River.
Mrs Henke said she was sacked for disloyalty after she’d asked for a better dunny in the office.
“In those days, we were in a little old wooden shop on Maroondah Highway, and there was one dunny used by nine people. And by the end of the week, the level was getting pretty high, and we were getting stomach infections and things,” she said.
“I asked the owners if we could improve the dunny, replace it or whatever. But there wasn’t enough money for that sort of thing, and people were getting sick. So I went to the shire and asked them to encourage the owners to improve the toilet facilities, and I was sacked with disloyalty.
“So being at home suddenly, I decided to write this story of the trip up the Yarra River, and I sent it off to various publishers, I got 26 rejections. So then the manuscript sat in the drawer for many, many years.”
A few years later, while editing Mornington Peninsula papers, Mrs Henke also studied art at Chisholm TAFE, Frankston, graduating with a Diploma of Visual Arts.
With new confidence in drawing and painting abilities, she began illustrating her books.
One day, her husband reminded her of the Yarra River manuscript, which he’d always loved and encouraged her to dig it out.
“So I pulled out the manuscript, and I was surprised at how well written it was about 35 years ago. I did more research and began making illustrations on the iPad. I wanted the book to have the feel of the Yarra, the bush and its critters,” The Poet and The River author said.
“By this time, I’d written four novels, none of which publishers wanted, so my husband said to me, ‘publish it yourself.’ That’s how Flying Pony Press was born, and I published my books and other people’s books as well.”
The book was officially published on 21 June, the day after her 82nd birthday.
Mrs Henke’s journey with Mountain Views began when she saw an advertisement for editing Mountain Views in 1986 after working for various companies, including The National Times and 3EA SBS Radio.
The past Mountain Views editor said she had lots of unforgettable memories with the Yarra Valley-based newspaper.
“We won an award for the Best Regional Historical Feature Story for Australia Day Awards in 1988. It was a double-page spread written by Robert Martin on Captain Cook and Aboriginal people. And on display at the reception were photographs from Mountain Views of how we celebrated Australia Day, featuring the fancy dress party at Badger Creek and the sailing of the first fleet on Emerald Lake,” Mrs Henke said.
“Another great big feature I did was arrive in a Cobb and Co coach from Melbourne through Healesville to celebrate the centenary of the Melbourne to Healesville mail service.
“A kind of funny one, we refer to it as a Cold Night on Donna, but I write the story saying, ‘This is one of those stories over which one doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry’. And it began in December 1987, when the Casey family of Warburton decided to go for a quiet evening stroll.
“Jack Casey was 97, partially deaf and largely blind, and he wanted to walk up the aqueduct to Mount Donna Buang, so there were four of them I think, and they started walking up Donna, and one of them had a fall and they became trapped on Donna overnight, and then getting them out of Donna was a huge story, so that was one of my favourite stories.”
Taking a trip down memory lane, Mrs Henke appreciated her Mountain Views crew back in the days.
“The wonderful team of reporters we had in my day was Kath Gannaway and Millie Donald. And the photographer was David Fleay and Ian Amiet who did the real estate photographs, and he was famous for shooting the pictures of the house out through the car window and driving off. He was very quick at his job,” the past Mountain Views editor said.
“It was just a wonderful team of people to work with and I think we were very well trusted in the community because we were accessible. People could just walk in the front door and say, ‘I’ve got a story. Will you do a story about this?’
“And we had a good relationship with the Aboriginal community at Coranderrk, the Wandoon family and so forth.”
The Poet and The River is published by Flying Pony Press, available at Petersen’s Bookstore, Hastings, and from flyingponypress@gmail.com
