The String of the Last Wreath
The Hall’s Creek goldfields diary of Henry Berand
transcribed by Ray Scott
ISBN 978-0-85905-553-6, (New, 2013), A4, 74pp, illustrated, 230 grams.
$22.00* + POST
Henry Berand emigrated from Prussia to Australia, via New Zealand, around 1852, apparently following the Gold Rushes in the Eastern States. About 1887 Henry with his young wife and daughter migrated to the Kimberley Gold Fields at Halls Creek in search of their fortune.
Unfortunately, his wife Harriett died in 1890 leaving Henry to care for their 2 year old daughter, Ruby May. By 1896 Henry could see that the Goldfields were no place for a widower to raise a daughter, and so, after he and Ruby each laid a last wreath on Harriett's grave, they set out to return to Harriett's Family in the East.
This is Henry's story from that decision until close to his death in 1913. It is a factual account of the early Kimberley goldfields and the place of the Prospectors, Businessmen and Families of the time.