Author(s): Dorothy Johnston

Fiction

When Helen Plathe sets out along the Barwon River path for her first day at Highlands woollen mill she is following in the footsteps of her mother her uncle and her grandfather. Inside Highlands Helen is initiated into an extraordinary world and discovers its secret history.

The bluestone tower of Highlands casts a long shadow over those who work there - the maverick Queenie Bisset railing against a world of men who 'liked neat ideas and liked their women to be neat as well': Helen's uncle Lennie Pritchard tragically thwarted in his bid to make a new life outside the mill: young Wally Sullivan torn between his family and his struggle to keep the mill afloat; and the mysterious Miss Foot silent witness to the decline of an industry that has ruled the lives of people along the river for generations.