Author Victoria Reiby is ecstatic after bagging her first barramundi on western Cape York, the main setting for her latest book trilogy, The Weipa Crocodile. Photo: Supplied.
It is not often that Weipa graces the pages of a novel as the setting for a thrilling tale, but after capturing the heart of a Queensland author, the western Cape York township is now the home of a recently completed crime trilogy.
Author Victoria Reiby’s The Weipa Crocodile: Bloodlines was published earlier this month, and brings to a close the three-part saga following fierce Cape York protector Bruce Hudson and his journey of fighting to protect ancestral land.
A doctor by trade, Ms Reiby began working on book one, The Weipa Crocodile: Murders in the Outback, after falling in love with the community during a post-COVID trip around the north.
“I work as an international medical volunteer; my husband and I were volunteering overseas, and we were forced to come home because of COVID,” she said.
“We live on the Sunshine Coast, where the restrictions weren’t too bad, so we bought a four-wheel drive and a rooftop tent, and travelled Queensland and a bit into the Northern Territory, but Weipa was the one place that stayed in our hearts.”
Ms Reiby said she was so inspired by the Weipa community that she returned several times and kept a journal.
“It was just the characters there, the people, the setting, all the things you could do,” she said.
“We stayed at the caravan park; people were just so friendly and open and willing to share stories, and I got really excited and passionate about it, so I started keeping a journal of the people we’d met.”
The author said she also stayed in surrounding communities, such as Mapoon, Coen and Bamaga, adding she learned so much listening to Indigenous community members’ stories of culture and difficult upbringings in missions.
However, when she was ready to release the book, it was around the time of the Indigenous voice referendum in 2023, and she became unsure about releasing the story as a non-Indigenous author.
“At the time, there was a lot of pushing about Indigenous rights and stealing their stories, but the whole trilogy is based upon people I met, who I made it clear that they may well become part of a book, and the Indigenous people were cool with it, the bartender and manager at the Alby were cool with it, and so were the girls at the caravan park,” she said.
“I actually sat on it for two years; it was ready to publish for more than two years, and I didn’t want to offend anyone.”
She said the personality of her main character, Bruce Hudson, was based on her own father, but his stories were an amalgamation of the lived experiences of various First Nations peoples.
“Bruce has all the personality characteristics of my father, who isn’t Indigenous, but the stories come into play from the First Nations people I met in Cape York, who I spoke to and really felt their connection to Country,” Ms Reiby said.
“They were happy to share their culture and traditions, and I was more than happy to listen.
“Bruce is not just one person, he’s multiple people and multiple people’s stories from the Indigenous community, so he’s a very complex man.”
Ms Reiby said she was overjoyed at the response from Weipa locals who had come across her work, and hoped community members featured would have a fun time finding which character was based on them.
“When I sent the books [to the featured locals], I sent a personal note as well saying I think you’ll figure out who’s who,” she said.
“I think [they’ll’] figure out who the town gossips are that have all these theories about who murdered who, and there’s the manager of the Albatross Hotel, but it’s not actually the manager, it’s one of the bartenders.”
