There is no Golden Soak, no tribal area known as the Pukara, nor any sheep or cattle station called Jarra Jarra. The characters are, of course, equally fictitious. I mention this because to those few who know this locality well, I feel some explanation is due for changes in the topography which I have made for the purposes of the story. And for those very few who have leaseholds in the area, my apologies for what may seem to them an invasion of their privacy. Though I have travelled the backtrack through the Ophthalmia Range from Mt Newman to Mt Robinson, I have not actually climbed the gap between Padtherung and Coondewanna, so that there may be some inaccuracy in the description, which is based on a gully slightly further to the east. My choice of the Pilbara as the setting for this story of the Australian outback and the mineral boom of 1969–70 was made after very extensive travelling. That my wife and I were able to see so much of this vast, underpopulated country before making my final choice was due to the encouragement and assistance I was given by Sir Reginald Ansett, through his Ansett Airline, and of course by Qantas, and in the mining world by Sir Val Duncan, Sir Maurice Mawby and Sir James Vernon.
