Author’s Note

My sugar mill and plantation of Elianne, although loosely based upon

the grand estates of old, is fictional, as are all of Elianne’s family members

and the workers employed upon the estate.

In writing of the township of Bundaberg, I have referred to some of the

well-known early entrepreneurs and local businesses for the purposes of

authenticity, but these only in passing. All major characters in the novel are

fictional.

I have tried to be consistent as far as possible, but it’s difficult to be

spot-on when neither the locals nor the historians can say exactly why the

grand, main thoroughfare of Bundaberg was named Bourbon Street and

exactly why and when it became Bourbong, which I find very amusing.

Theories abound, one being that the original surveyors, who were inspired

by many Aboriginal words in their naming of streets and sites, euphonised

‘boorbung’, the local term applied to a string of nearby waterholes. Some

believe ‘bourbong’ is the phonetic spelling of the French bourbon, the name

given to a particular variety of cane grown in the area before 1875. And

there’s even the theory that Bourbon Street was changed to Bourbong

during the years of prohibition. That one sounds a bit dicey to me, but take

your pick – it’s all part of the colourful world that is Bundaberg.

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