National Network for Equitable Library Service

This is a tiger town, a place at the bottom of the world where God turns a blind eye to pillage and plunder.' Van Diemen's Land was an island of stark contrasts; a harsh penal colony, an English idyll for its landed gentry, and an island so rich in natural resources it was a profiteer's paradise. Its capital Hobart Town had its contrasts too; the wealthy elite in their sandstone mansions, the exploited poor in the notorious slum known as Wapping, and the criminals and villains who haunted the dockside taverns and brothels of Sullivan's Cove. Hobart Town was no place for the meek. This is a saga of three families who lived through Tasmania's golden era, witnessed the birth of Federation and in 1915, watched their sons off to the Great War.