Darwin’s Vineyard | Terry Aulich in Conversation with Charles Wooley

A cold murder case. From Tasmania’s stunning East Coast farmlands and sea view vineyards to  Hobart’s Georgian sandstone streets and battling housing commission estates, a story about entitlement and wealth.

 Colen Campbell has it all but wants more. Daria Lucic is the Queen of Real Estate and plans to hijack her father’s dream village and turn it into a money grab. Will these big players get what they want? Or have they underestimated the power of young people, a good cop and a pair of disreputable PR executives who suddenly find a conscience.

Who said the social novel is dead as former Senator and State Minister Terry Aulich carves through the world of privilege? In the Age of Trump, Australia has its own versions.

Paddy Kennedy and his on-off lover Helen Troy run the trouble prone PR agency often called the Dream Makers. They are hired by Colen Campbell to buy up vineyards in Europe but soon find that their international connections are to be used for other purposes by the brilliant but ruthless Campbell whose social and business reach runs deep into Tasmanian and national society.

The Dream Makers are already defending Lenny Lucic from the depredations of his daughter, Daria as she tries to scuttle Lenny the Bosnian refugee’s dream of creating a village that is a welcoming community rather than another sterile housing estate.

Who are the Wild Boars Club and the International Freedom Institute? Why is the Nesting Lagoon estate deserted but in pristine condition, waiting for a mystery to be solved?

Former Senator Terry Aulich is no shrinking violet when it comes to crime and the social novel. Each of his four novels (The River’s End, Clapperland and Sète) offers a deep and often biting insight into the way the powerful players work, often to the detriment of their own communities. Darwin’s Vineyard is his latest.

Growing up in Tasmania, Terry Aulich is also an internationalist with a long history of involvement with human rights, privacy and election monitoring in various countries. This experience and his career as a writer and politician sees him travel widely to provide strategic advice and presentations. He has worked for the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee and other international organisations that require work on balancing security and human rights.

For a number of years, he lived on and off in France and taught in high schools in London and Tasmania after graduating in English literature, history and politics from the University of Tasmania. He now lives in Hobart, which suits a writer where the sea is in his blood.

He is a frequent contributor to Australian media on social and political issues and is an Australian Rules tragic.

Terry will be in conversation with Charles Wooley. Charles is a journalist, reporter, and writer, and one of Australia’s most acclaimed radio and television personalities. 

Join Terry and Charles at the Afterword Cafe