Grasping at Shadows: Balfour, the mining town in the Tarkine by Heather Nimmo | PB

Grasping at Shadows: Balfour, the mining town in the Tarkine by Heather Nimmo | PBHeather Nimmos engaging book is a chain of reminiscences as well as the story of the swift rise and fall of the gallant mining field called Balfour. Of the hundreds of books on the history of our mining fields, this is the only one I know which so neatly combines these two ingredients of history and memoir. ~ Professor Geoffrey Blainey In 1975, a young Adelaide teacher, who wanted to write for the theatre, fell in love with a geologist and followed

Heather Nimmo’s engaging book is a chain of reminiscences as well as the story of the swift rise and fall of the gallant mining field called Balfour. Of the hundreds of books on the history of our mining fields, this is the only one I know which so neatly combines these two ingredients of history and memoir. ~ Professor Geoffrey Blainey

In 1975, a young Adelaide teacher, who wanted to write for the theatre, fell in love with a geologist and followed him to the abandoned Tasmanian mining town of Balfour, situated in what is now known as the Tarkine. With another couple and their two small children, they lived the 1970s ‘back to the bush’ dream while operating a small-scale tin mining plant. Part memoir, part history, this is a lively account — the comedy and tragedy — of life in a remote mining community, in both the early 1900s and between 1975 and 1981.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Heather Nimmo has written more than twenty plays for stage and radio, working with some of Australia’s leading actors, directors and designers, and winning a number of literary awards. She has also worked on television and film scripts. Since leaving Balfour she has been a school guidance officer based at Burnie, and taught at several universities in Perth and Adelaide, where she now lives.