Ib Svane was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was drafted into the Danish army at the age of eighteen and served in the United Nation’s forces in Cyprus. He has an academic education from the University of Copenhagen and Göteborg, Sweden, graduating with PhDs in zoology and marine biology. In 1998, he migrated to Australia to work at Flinders University and SARDI Aquatic Sciences in Port Lincoln. During his scientific career, he has published extensively in international scientific journals, popular magazines and elsewhere.
History is not always the exact truth but a narrative flavoured by the writer’s passion and background and the time when she or he lived. It is particularly true for southern Australia's history because it was put on paper by the colonialists. It is as if the history of Australia started then, and nothing happened before. Many past stories representing the history of aboriginal Australia are lost because its people died rapidly of infectious diseases, malnutrition and wars. Even these stories may not be the exact truth because they were told and re-told many times. But somewhere within the tales and the stories, there is a truth, and I have tried to find it. Behind the glamorous reports of Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin’s maritime exploits, one can find their humanity, aspirations and failures. The history of the people that lived along the South Australian coast from the Murray River, the Encounter Bay (Ramong to the Ramindjeri people), Kangaroo Island to Port Lincoln (Kallinyalla, the Place of Sweet Water, to the Barngarla people), and along the entire west coast of the Eyre Peninsula, is at best scanty. But there are stories—interesting stories—of whalers, escaped convicts and their lives among the aboriginal people. Here, I meld these stories together in a tale of love, adventure and imagination.
In the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, there is a holy water font. It was made of a shell of the giant clam, Tridacna gigas. I often wondered where it came from because these clams are only found far away from Europe. I found it intriguing that the shell already arrived in France in the early sixteenth century as a gift from the Venetian Republic to King Francis I. Where did it come from? What story could such a shell tell? What thoughts did the sculptor, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle have when he carved the beautiful column upon which the shell rests? What is its religious significance? Only a few pearls from giant clams are believed to exist, and their origins are shrouded in mystery. Is there a pearl somewhere belonging to this clam? It will have to be the Pearl of Saint-Sulpice, alias the Pearl of Allah. The pearl took me on an unexpected adventure to the French Revolution and before, to a1964 scientific meeting where the descendants of the secret league of the Scarlet Pimpernel unites and onwards to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in1974 where I faced the prowess and strength of the guardians of Aphrodite in the Troodos Mountains. Join me if you dare.
The 30 October is the official day for the release by Austin Macauley Publishers. An interview on ABC Eyre Peninsula (abc.net.au) will take place from 720 AM. It will be an exciting time ahead. The ........
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