Set in Whitey's Fall, a remote settlement harbouring a long-defunct gold mine and a mythic mountain of gold, this story chronicles the lives of the town's ancient and inbred villagers. Having their own religion and unique sense of history, they are aghast when the government proposes to turn their town into a tourist attraction and bring it into the modern world, which they have no use for.
Led by the young Billy Swan and the sexual presence of the newcomer, Vivien Lang, the inhabitants of Whitey's Fall form a bastion against the capriciousness of progress, setting fantastic occurrences into motion.
Winner of the Miles Franklin Award.
