IAN SMALL - AUSTRALIAN AUTHOR

Ian Small was born in Grenfell NSW, birthplace of Henry Lawson. His first successful writing venture was winning the Essay Competition at the Grenfell Show in 1965, for which he was awarded the sum of two shillings.

Moving to Inverell in 1968, Ian attended Inverell High School and topped his year in Modern History in the Higher School Certificate. Part of the curriculum dealt with World War 1 and he remains astounded that the fascinating local story of The Kurrajongs, a group of 114 volunteers recruited from the area, was totally ignored. Similarly, the Tom Roberts connection with the Inverell district was never mentioned.

Prior to fulfilling a long-held ambition to write, Ian was employed as a Treasury Manager/Currency Specialist with a number of international banks. In 2001 he commenced work on his first novel and The Kurrajongs was published in 2003. The Kurrajongs has won an award and is about to enter its fourth print-run. Ian is currently collecting information for another four Australian-themed novels.

Ian’s talk “Tom Roberts and The Kurrajongs” is aimed at bringing two neglected World War 1 stories to life. Very little seems to have been written about Tom’s wartime service and this period of his life naturally tends to be overlooked in favour of more ‘interesting’ times. But can we understand the artist without filling in this ‘blank canvas’? And can Australians afford to let stories such as The Kurrajongs disappear into history?

Visit Ian's website www.thekurrajongs.com.au