Themes & Special Days > November 29, 2019

Returning to Port Hedland

November 29, 2019
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Last week I returned to Port Hedland, the first time since 2015 when I was researching The Dog with Seven Names. After a breakfast presentation with the Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Camilo Blanco and I visited DOME café, the refurbished hospital where my fictitious dog lived in 1942.

The first time I visited this site, the hospital building was fenced off and in disrepair. Travelling back in 2015, the most I’d hoped for was to be able to take photographs through the wire fencing. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at dusk to find lights blazing in a newly renovated building. I went inside, ordered a coffee and walked along the verandahs, imagining the scene in World War Two when dozens of burnt patients were evacuated from Broome after the strafing of Dutch flying boats. It’s just one of the passages in my novel which was enriched by being able to walk through the old hospital rather than view it through holes in a fence. Thanks DOME, I love your policy of keeping our heritage alive by restoring historic buildings.

This entry was posted in AnzacsBooksfor teachershistorical fictionIn the LamplightLight Horse BoyLighthouse GirlNewsschool visits and tagged AnzacBookweekBunbury Catholic CollegeIn the LamplightlibrariansLight Horse BoyLighthouse GirlnursingWWI on August 20, 2019.

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