The Crocodile Hotel

Julie Janson THE CROCODILE HOTEL A heartfelt, epic story of a young single mother's adventures in a remote Northern Territory community in 1976. This land holds a terrible secret of a massacre of immense proportions, the earth is red with the memory. Jane Reynolds is swept up in two years of wonders, as she negotiates her place between the black and white societies. She finds love with two charismatic men and meets traditional Aboriginal elders who change her life forever. Jane fights alongside the Lanniwah for land rights and finds respect and redemption for herself. Jane takes a journey to recognise her identity and is drawn into the world of race relations in the face of 1970s prejudice and discrimination. She is a teacher from Sydney, and she begins a position on the remote cattle property, Harrison Station, south of Arnhem Land.. There are confrontations with the racist cattle station boss, Hubert Barkley and his wife Edie, but Jane is entangled in their lives. The caravan school has fifty two traditional Aboriginal children and no one can read or write. Another teacher arrives and Jane is swept up in a love affair with the charismatic Orlando. The relationship crashes as sex and jealousy and other women impact on their love. As time passes Jane is drawn to the handsome David Yaniwuy, a young Aboriginal Teaching Assistant. Jane is sexual, courageous and passionate and she is swept up in a tempestuous story of the Northern Territory that reveals the bloody history of the country and the Lanniwah people's spiritual magic realism in their cultural landscape. This story may challenge the way you think about Australia's history.