Western Australian Lonely Graves
Yvonne and Kevin Coate
ISBN 978-0-85905-682-3, A4, 1284 pages, 4 volumes, soft cover, 3.5 kg
$325.00* + POST
These magnificent volumes are the result of nearly 40 years research by Yvonne and Kevin Coate and their associates, and contain details of thousands of lonely or lost graves throughout Western Australia.
The information is from local and state histories and newspapers, police reports, correspondents, coroner's files, and government papers.
Books of this calibre are rare, as is the capacity for researchers to produce such volumes of useful data.
The volumes are also an important bibliography of bush history from the earliest colonial times to the near present.
There is nothing like this in any other state and probably not in any other country.
There are cross indexes by local government areas, and by map areas, as well as many appendices on medical terms, unidentified graves, and the protection and preservation of sites.
Unlike their bones, the stories of those buried in these lonely graves are not dry. Accidents with cattle, camels, horses and vehicles, drowning at sea or in a local billabong, dying of thirst, speared by natives, suicide by dog bait or gun, and of course murders, are the warp and weft of the lives that were lost in the building of the nation.
All are recounted and are a treasure trove of stories which are an immense resource for future historians, writers and film makers.
All this has been done by the authors and publishers without any handouts from the expected sources.
Of course this is expressed in the unsubsidized price and the small print run. It is expected that libraries will be the main purchasers, which will enable wide use by the public.
Each copy sold comes with a complimentary copy of More Lonely Graves.
Published November, 2017.