RECENTLY I wrote about the amazing life and times of Geoffrey Wikner.
I mentioned in that article that I was introduced to Mr Wikner by my neighbour, a lady by the name of Daphne Rooke.
As it was with Mr Wikner, Daphne has an extraordinary story to tell. The following is a small part of that story.
The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate of 5 January 1950, page 6, reported the following.
“Nelson’s Bay and Newcastle district will provide the background for two Australian novels to be published in America within the next 18 months.
“Both novels will be the long-range result of what was originally intended as a three weeks’ holiday at Nelson’s Bay by a South African authoress.
“Mrs. Daphne Rooke, her husband and six-year-old daughter, Rosemary, migrated to Australia from South Africa three years ago. “After a year in Sydney, they went to Nelson’s Bay for three weeks’ holiday.
“The place and people who lived there so intrigued Mrs. Rooke that she has not been back to Sydney since.
“Instead, she has taken up residence in a house being built gradually round a garage.
“Since she moved in among the sawdust and shavings of her rapidly-expanding home, she has been writing continuously.
“It was here that she wrote her second novel, to be published by an American firm next month.
“Entitled ‘A Grove Of Fever Trees,’ it is set in North Zululand, where she spent her girlhood.
“As a change from novels, Mrs. Rooke has also written a book, ‘Be Not Disturbed,’ dealing with Captain Geoffrey Wikner’s flight to Australia in a Halifax bomber.
“Written in the form of a diary, it was compiled from Mr. Wikner’s personal records of the trip.
“In a foreword, Mrs. Rooke has told of his early life in Australia.
“In an epilogue, she deals with his and his wife’s life since they returned to Australia and established a holiday camp at Nelson’s Bay.”
Daphne Rooke and husband Bertie were our neighbours in Fingal Bay from 1975 to 1991.
Fantastic neighbours, the couple were inseparable whether it be bushwalking, playing cards or on the golf course.
Late at night Daphne could be heard hammering away on a typewriter.
It was some time before I was to learn the story of the Rookes – Daphne as a writer and “Bertie”, real name Irving, who played the piano for black and white movies before becoming a builder and travelling to South Africa where he met Daphne.
By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE
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