TRUE NORTH: THE STORY OF MARY AND ELIZABETH DURACK
Brenda Niall
Text Publishing (RRP $32.95)
OWNING cattle stations the size of Belgium doesn’t make you happy. Just ask the Durack family, who once controlled huge swaths of land in Australia’s north, only to lose it all to settle debts. Brenda Niall’s biography True North covers two members of the family, Mary and Elizabeth Durack, a writer and painter respectively, and suggests that while Western Australia’s Kimberly region defined their art, the loss of the land dealt a severe blow that somehow the family never really recovered from.
Despite the deep sense of melancholy running through the book, True North is a fascinating look into a life that no longer exists. Mary and Elizabeth had to fight some pretty heavy prejudices, not to mention the distraction of raising young children, to continue with their art, and True North is a fitting tribute to these two feisty women.
