The Old Balmain House

THE OLD BALMAIN HOUSE

Novel by

Graham Wilson

Acknowledgments 

I wish to thank various members of my extended family who have provided information on our family's early history in Australia, particularly my Aunt Edith, who has passed on a significant amount of family history compiled by others.

Also thanks to the various people who commented on drafts of this novel and whose advice has been positive and welcome. As some of these people do not wish to be named I have decided not to list people, but both you and I know who you are and your assistance has been greatly appreciated.

Copyright 

The Old Balmain House 

Graham Wilson 

Copyright Graham Wilson 2011 

Published by BeyondBeyond Books 

ISBN 9780987197115 

Authors Note 

This is a work of fiction. Balmain is a suburb of Sydney where I lived for 7 years. However, while many locations and parts of its history are true, some locations and most characters are fictitious. For those interested, the real information behind this story is given in the Appendix, at the end of the book. More information on the Balmain Peninsula is available from sources such as the Balmain Public Library, the Mitchell Library of NSW and the Balmain Association.  

The purpose of this novel is not to merge fiction and historical fact, but to use some historical facts of Sydney's early development and some geographical locations around Sydney Harbour, as a canvass on which a work of imagination is painted.  

Parts of the canvass are known facts from my early family history, or the history of the area, but these are like occasional dots of paint giving reference points and shadowed outlines. All the intervening layered detail to make this word picture has been created within my mind. To the extent that some parts approximate but differ from reality, this is entirely accidental. I apologise if it causes offense through appearing to misrepresent history. 

The idea which led to this novel began with the purchase of our own much loved Balmain cottage. We discovered a sepia photo of a small girl who lived in the house about 100 years ago. Later, in a writing class, I was given a perfume bottle, and asked to imagine a story from it. What I imagined over five minutes became this novel. 

It is an imagining which I hope gives pleasure. This is the real purpose of this book. 

Chapter 1- A New House 

We walked in and closed the door. The house was finally ours. The agent's brochure said it was built about 1870. 

We had lived in Balmain for just over a year and had come here by accident. Arriving in Sydney five years earlier we were agog at real estate prices. So we rented a house in Sydney's suburban south from owners away in Singapore. Then their son was injured so they returned to Australia early. Suddenly we needed a new house to live in. Marie, my wife, worked in the city and my job would move there soon. So a move to inner city Sydney made sense. 

With little time before we had to move we looked at houses to rent in the suburbs of Newtown, Camperdown and Glebe. Most were terrible; dirty bathrooms and kitchens, busy streets and little space. Then I saw a listing for a new townhouse in nearby Annandale with four bedrooms. My inner-west internet search had also brought up a four-bedroom townhouse in Balmain, although it was $70 a week more than the Annandale one. Thus far I had left Balmain out of consideration. I thought it would be too expensive and only trendies lived there. However, with little time to find a house for three children, we added Balmain to the list.