Growing up Moonta

by Kristin Weidenbach

'Growing up Moonta' is the memoir of an Australian country town, entwined with four generations of family history. Told through the childhood reminiscences of Weidenbach's father Neil, it paints a picture of a time when an illegitimate child was raised as a sister to her mother, travelling salesmen made a living hawking dressmakers' pins and bottles of antiseptic salve, and boys grew to men lumping bags of wheat and tending engines in the town power houses of the 1930s.
Young Neil and his forebears absorbed the quirky anecdotes of South Australia's famous copper-mining town - from the infamous murders and the boys who went to war, to the rhythms of everyday life such as the butcher carving meat at the back of his horse and cart, and the women competing on Mondays to hang their washing on the line first.
'Growing up Moonta' transports the readers to a time not so long ago, but a way of life long passed: a place redolent with nostalgia that lives on in the stories of our parents and grandparents.

Paperback

Published November 1, 2017

About the author

Kristin Weidenbach writes creative non-fiction focused on Australian history. She is the author of Tom the Outback Mailman, which is a picture book for junior primary readers based on her Australian bestseller, Mailman of the Birdsville Track: the Story of Tom Kruse.

She is the author of Rock Star: the Story of Reg Sprigg, and has written for Outback magazine and Australian Geographic.

Kristin is a PhD immunologist who specialised in forensic science and worked at Stanford University, USA, before she switched to a writing career.

Reviews

[Danielle Clode · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing up Moonta is a finely produced oral history telling the story of a small Australian country town from the perspective of local residents and their everyday lives, rather than the usual narrative grand men and their economic achievements. Weidenbach has mined a rich vein of Australian history with all the humour, compassion and dogged determination of our pioneering forebears. If only more books were written like this, our history would be far more accurate and much more engaging. Eminently readable, authentic and complex, these are stories we will all recognise from our parents and grandparents. A truly collaborative project between a father and daughter, I think Neil Weidenbach would be both honoured and delighted by the stories his daughter has compiled in his memory.

[Janie Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

.A great uncle, his wife and two sons had arrived in Moonta in 1849. My great grandfather brought his wife, my great great grand mother and 3 sisters and a brother out from Redruth in Cornwall in 1856. He was an assayer and he and his wife had 9 children and took in two other relatives. This book resonated with me as though it is about Weidenbach's family, it also covers many historical events, includes family names, places I have visited in Moonta, manners, attitudes and sayings I am familiar with. It gave me even more insight into my grandmother’s early life and how important Moonta was. I had no real idea. As well it was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

[Kathy S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As a resident of the Copper Coast the places and many of the names are familiar to me. This is a great collection of anecdotes and history that could easily be lost to future generations. It has given me a much better appreciation of how important Moonta and surrounds was to the growth and survival of South Australia. I’ve been aware of the Cornish influence in the area but wasn’t appreciative of how German migration played such a big part to the story.

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. I've been to Moonta many times and lived in a town near there for a few years so I found this interesting.