New novel based on the memory of town now underwater

AN author whose mother’s family was raised in a district lost under Lake Eppalock has written a fictional novel based on the experiences of its former residents.  

When Lake Eppalock was created in the early 1960s, a whole town, including 39 families, were displaced from Wild Duck. 

A fictional retelling of that experience, titled The Place That Time Forgot, is Janet O’Brien’s first novel and written under the pen name Jann Maree. 

“It’s a really important story that I wanted to write that’s very much based on the loss of land and land acquisition in Central Victoria in order to create Lake Eppalock,” she said. 

“Fundamentally, it’s my mum’s story. She was born in the district of Wild Duck, and she often talked about the loss of land and heritage and livelihood of her family and the residents.” 

O’Brien said a walk through the area with her mother during the Millennium Drought sparked the idea for her novel. 

“In 2007, I walked with mum across the bridge, because we’d had decades of drought, and all of a sudden, the land and the artefacts from her time had resurfaced and that loss was etched on her face,” she said. 

“I looked at her and I said ‘Mum, nobody knows about your story, someone needs to tell your story’, and she said it would be really good as a reminder of who we were as a community. 

“I thought, now here is a story, and it wouldn’t work for me to write it as a factual account, I really wanted to fictionalise it. 

“The whole reason is to give a voice to those former residents in the district that really lost their livelihoods and their heritage and their whole farming community, and to give a voice to that landscape of Wild Duck.” 

While its characters are fictional, several are based on O’Brien’s family members such as her mother and grandmother. 

For more information about O’Brien and how to purchase The Place That Time Forgot, visit jannmaree.com.