History Group meeting to offer glimpse of 1860s incident

THE Bendigo Family History Group’s annual general meeting and first Saturday meeting for the year at Bendigo Library, happening tomorrow at 2pm, will feature Woodend author Paul Burke.

Burke will be discussing his second book, Rails of Gold, which explores the 1861 strike that postponed the building of the Melbourne to Murray River Railway.

The England-born former teacher said he took up writing a decade ago after he chose to retire.

“It’s been kind of a hobby so I haven’t had to slave away at it,” he said.

“I’ve been able to sort of take it or leave it in a way – I participate in a lot of other things too so it’s a pleasure to do it when I’m ready.”

He said he hopes members of the Family History Group will find something interesting in tomorrow’s talk.

“They’re people who are interested in history, particularly, so they might well have other interests like how to write a book, or how to research, so I hope I can enlighten them or entertain them,” he said.

“I’ve found one of the highlights as a writer is you can put two and two together and discover things, which is not apparent first off.

“I think writing’s great in that it’s a way of thinking – it’s deeper thinking than you do if you’re just tossing around words in a conversation.

“I’ll be trying to get that across to people when I’m talking.”

Purchase Rails of Gold on Burke’s website.