literally just concluded in Nipaluna Hobart. Katherine is a friend, neighbor,
inspiration, and internationally bestselling author who’s sold over 2 million books. Her writing has been translated into over a dozen languages, and she’s won literary awards in Australia and overseas. Katherine has been awarded the Bicentennial Medal for her contribution to Australian
society and in 2025 she was inducted into the Tasmanian Honour Roll of Women.
The soldout event tonight was mc’d by Katherine’s peer, acclaimed author Heather Rose and featured a conversation with journalist, academic and media leader Dr. Joce Nettlefold.
In 2023 Nipaluna became a UNESCO City of Literature, a recognition of our outstanding contribution to writing, long list of award-winning, best-selling authors, and depth of talent in grassroots literature. This month alone, at least half a dozen books by Tasmanian authors have been launched.
Katherine is part of that legacy.
Katherine has been writing books for over 40 years, often bringing Tasmanian stories and landscapes to readers from near and far. Her first book, The Boy and the Whale, a children’s story set on Flinders Island, was a bestseller in Germany, where it’s still popular decades after its release.
Katherine was born in 1959 in what was then Tanganyika, now Tanzania.
She’s written seven novels set there during the independence era of the early 1960s. Her work explores all the big themes of life set against a complex background of colonial and postcolonial societies. In this new book, she brings her main character from Tanzania to Tasmania. In doing so, Katherine links her two homelands. In the story, this connection is symbolised by kangaroo grass. Remarkably identical species of this plant grow in both countries. Their origins lying in the ancient supercontinent Gondwana.
In honour of this, Katherine spent part of publication day last week having an illustration of the grass inked on her ankle, her first tattoo.
This new book also reaches into Katherine’s Welsh ancestry. Her grandfather was a coal miner and many people may not know of the role of Welsh people, particularly coal miners, in the colonisation of the east coast of Tasmania.
Last week, I heard Katherine interviewed on the ABC and expressed how important it was to her that in bringing a character from Tanzania to find a new home in Tasmania, a connection was made with the original owners and custodians of this island, the Palawa.
Katherine was married for over 40 years to much loved and admired Tasmanian filmmaker Roger Scholes. His death in 2022 evoked an outpouring of grief in the creative and conservation communities of Lutruwita. My colleague Cassy O’Connor spoke beautifully about Roger following his passing in this very chamber. Katherine was halfway through writing One Night at Silver Lake when Roger died. They had collaborated closely on everything, books, film, including the iconic feature film The Tale of Ruby Rose. They spent time upriver during the Franklin blockade, and their doco about the protest is a classic of activist filmmaking and an important contribution to the historical record.
After Roger’s death, it was a difficult task for Katherine to continue writing, but she pushed through courageously finishing this book, which is already gathering praise.
Katherine and Roger both earned their living as full-time artists. This is very hard to do. Communities benefit greatly from what artists contribute, but their work is undervalued, usually underpaid or not paid at all. Governments must properly support the arts.
Creativity runs in the family, and both of Katherine’s and Roger’s sons are active in the arts scene. Johnny founded the successful street arts organization, Vibrance, and has a piece showing today in Hobart currently at TMAG (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery). Lindon is a composer and painter as well as being a psychiatrist. As AI transforms society, the role of art in people’s lives will only grow in importance.
I conclude with immense congratulations to Kath on the publication of this novel. I’m halfway through reading it and soon to set off with the main character Sara on the long journey from Tanzania to Tasmania to fictitious Rhondda on the east coast. I can’t wait for her to get here to properly understand Katherine’s skill in using words to paint a landscape. A landscape I know and love in detail.
Seeing this this work published and launched is an incredible testament to Katherine. Not just her skills, skill in the craft, but her resilience, tenacity,
and determination. I know how hard it was to return to writing following Roger’s death. But she has prevailed and has produced a piece of work that does our UNESCO status proud and will stand alongside her other works as a masterpiece of both scene and story.
