In the wake of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, the world learned some big lessons. But not enough. Life eventually returned to normal, affluence and profligate activity increased - it was The Best of Times. But then the gap between the Haves and the Have-Nots grew. Finally, halfway through the 21st century urban riots, drone warfare and nuclear war, followed by the Ultimate Virus, wiped out the world's population - save a little colony on Australia's Bondi Beach, which sets about rebuilding a new world. Written before the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to the conjecture of Australian Professor Huw Price, Head of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University, that a mega virus was one of the major existential threats facing our society, this is a story of a great love affair, political intrigue, danger and heroic - and mock-heroic - endeavour, as well as a warning of what could be in store for us all.
This is the story of the birth of Queensland's booming Gold Coast. Pioneer Thomasine and her husband, Walter John (Jack) Browne, voyaged out to South Queensland to be the first family to settle on the isolated Nerang River on what was to become the Gold Coast. Widowed at 29 with four young children, Thomasine had been hit with the news of the murder of her father and brother in New Zealand by Maoris. She gave up a privileged life in London to marry Jack, and she had a further 11 children, six of whom survived. Thomasine was a leader in fostering music and the arts in Nerang while Jack spearheaded the development of Nerang and the Gold Coast. The bridge leading from the main Highway into Nerang, named the Walter J. Browne bridge, is testimony to his community work. The author, Sandra J. Darroch, is a great-great-granddaughter of Thomasine and Jack, and is the author of nine books, including the first, definitive, biography of Lady Ottoline Morrell.
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