Women of Wolfram Camp

When recently widowed Felicity Barclay made a spur-of-the moment decision to apply for a waitressing position at Wolfram Camp, a remote north Queensland mining town she had never heard of before, she never expected to form friendships with four other women who would change her life.

Set in 1917, Women of Wolfram Camp follows the lives of five quite different women in the rapidly growing mining town of Wolfram Camp. The demand for wolfram created by the war has led to an influx of businesses and people, and the town battles to meet the demands as its young men continue to enlist.

This is the story of Felicity, the new waitress; Matilda, the owner of the Court Guest House; Ethel, the baker's wife; Mary, a laundry maid; and Nancy, an artist trying to cope with an absent husband and three small children. The women form a close bond that helps them manage their daily lives while husbands and sons are away fighting. It is a poignant glimpse into the challenges women face in a remote mining town and their fierce resilience boosted by strong friendships.

While a work of fiction, Women of Wolfram Camp is set against real events of the time, and includes some of the real residents of the town. It brings to life a vibrant town that is no more.

Born in the 1950s, Jenny Kroonstuiver spent her childhood living on pastoral stations firstly in Western Queensland and then on the Nullarbor Plain in Western Australia. She trained as a teacher and spent several years teaching in country areas of the Northern Territory and Queensland before returning to Kalgoorlie in the 1980s. After a short-lived marriage, she raised her four children alone, continuing to work in the broader education sector. From 2004 she took up a role managing the national training system for the Australian meat industry, a role she held until her retirement in 2020. After publishing several family histories and biographies, this is her fourth novel set in the ghost towns of Australia.

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