Overview

Mount Zero is the compilation of the Wimmera Trilogy and is presented as a boxed set of the three stories by Douglas Gellatly: Lake Brambruck, Golton Island and Corker’s Creek. ______________________________________________________________________ Lake Brambruck (01) - "Shit, I'm out here in the water with nothing on, and he's closer to my clothes than I am!" So begins the relationship between Richard and Max at the remote Lake Brambruck in Wyperfield National Park in the northern Wimmera, Victoria, Australia. It's the mid-1970s in the conservative Wimmera district, and as the union between the two men strengthens, they experience dangers, frolicking fun, intimacy, homophobia and homophilia. On their conservation property, Golton Island, a Wimmera River island, their love deepens even further as they see more of a neighbor and the story heads towards its emotional ending. ______________________________________________________________________ Golton Island (02) - When George McPherson, an old and gentlemanly Adelaide business man, left a will with very specific instructions, he would neither have guessed nor intended the indirect changes that would happen, as the result of that will, to the lives of at least five others, five people whom he never knew. The changes begin when Richard McPherson and Max Clark find themselves becoming funeral directors in the Victorian rural city of Horsham. Then, following a tragedy, the same couple become 'parents' to Max's poverty stricken nephew, Rory, who harbours a high academic goal for himself. While finishing his secondary education at Horsham High School, Rory boards with Richard and Max's motherly friend, Ivy Pasco, and that changes her life. Then, at school, Rory gains a buddy, an Aboriginal boy named Danny Adkin. Shared experiences, good and bad, bring the boys closer together as they aim for their vocational goals. Can Rory achieve his goal? ______________________________________________________________________ Corker's Creek (03) - There’s something endearingly raw about Corker’s Creek … and what lies beneath its cover is not all tranquil. In the small rural town of Corker’s Creek in the Wimmera district of Victoria, Australia, Rory Clark is the local GP and his life-partner, Danny Adkin, is a paramedic based at the nearby rural city of Horsham. Between them, Rory and Danny find themselves entwined with the personal lives of many of the town’s characters. There’s the cheerful Indian supermarket proprietors, Raj and Saraswati Singh. The hairdresser and town gossiper, Hetty Crackjaw; Curtis Sturrock, the self-important farm machinery dealer, and his idiosyncratic wife, Delma. The pharmacist and local Councillor, Byron Bright, and his compulsively anxious wife, Mindy. The town grump, Muriel Ferguson. The landed gentry, Heiner and Anna Watkins; Carl and Keri Jagger, the farm tenants at ‘Corker’s Creek Park’, where Rory and Danny live. Monica Selby, the publican and her not-quite-right son, Alfie. The farm-stay owners, Maureen and Frank Sondheim and their troubled daughter, Cynthia. And, along with others, there’s also Daphne the emu. In their first year at Corker’s Creek, Danny and Rory are drawn into ever increasing tension as the good citizens of the town and district navigate around each other – or collide. The story ends with an unexpected event, which piles on top of other unforeseen events.