Field of Thunder is a work of historical fiction and high adventure
based primarily on the exploits of Lewis Lasseter, a prospector and
explorer who in the early 1930s held Australia and much of the world
enthralled.
He had recounted the tale of having discovered a fabulous reef of near-
pure gold in the central australian desert some thirty years before and
thereby caught the attention of a nation.
Day by day the media of the period followed the progress of the best
equipped expedition ever to enter central australia as it sought to
relocate the reef. The unfolding gloom of the Great Depression was
briefly forgotten in favour of Lasseter, the Robin Hood of the day, as
he and the expedition sought to relocate this fabulous treasure.
The story begins with the young Lasseter’s expulsion from school and
his subsequent apprenticeship into exploration and prospecting in the
wastelands of Western Australia. Great moments in Australian History
are given commercial appeal and woven throughout the narrative in a
style reminiscent of Wilbur Smith. The reader, through Lasseter, is led
back to the turn of the century gold discoveries near the embryonic
Alice Springs, then taken to the unexplored wastelands of ‘the center’.
He becomes hopelessly lost, parched and under threat of murder at the
hands of hostile natives. At his lowest moment, he stumbles upon a reef
of unimaginable richness, only to lose it again after becoming disorientated
and near to perishing in the sandy wastes.
Rescue (and some soft historical insight into the Afghanistan of the mid-
1800s) comes from an unlikely source, an Afghan camel driver and loveable
villain of the outback, who saves Lasseter’s life then transports him to a
nearby cattle station.
More easy history envelopes Ah Lee, a Chinese physician turned gold seeker,
fugitive and now station cook, who nurses the young man back to health on
the station.
Lies, deception and Aboriginal magic, Kadaitcha, together with Lasseter’s
psychotic fear enshroud the location of the reef for the next thirty years.
The exigencies of the Depression and family catastrophe force him to
reveal its existence and agree to lead an expedition to relocate it.
Lasseter loses his life under remarkable circumstances and the secret of
the reef dies with him.
In 1953, extraordinary events are again brewing in central australia that will
finally explain why hundreds of expeditions since Lasseter have failed to locate
his ‘Eldorado’ and why any future attempts will most likely fail.
The true nature of the land, it’s vastness and vengeance against those who
would plunder or corrupt it underscore the dominant story of high adventure,
death, privation and lost treasure.
Aboriginal issues are explored and their skills, customs and taboos graphically,
yet sensitively treated by an author who grew up with them in the outback as
playmates, mentors and life-long friends.
Field of Thunder is, above all else, a compelling story of Australia, the real
Australia, and of the people, passions and tragedies that have all contributed
to its unique character.
