From Home Island, looking across the lagoon.

Together the Cocos (Keeling) Islands form the classic circular shape of an atoll. The coral islands are the remains of an extinct volcano which has either been submerged, or has risen over millions of years, from the ocean floor. Only the eroded rim of the vent is now above sea level. Its coral islands form a protective circle around the tranquil lagoon while the constant surf, rolling in from the Indian Ocean, pounds their outer beaches.

During the 1860s the Islands were owned by successive generations of the Cluneys Ross family. The patriarch, George Cluneys Ross, brought Malaysian workers over from the Mainland to work his copra-producing plantation. By the 1960s the plantation had ceased to be commercially viable. The Cluneys Ross family eventually handed it over to the Australian Government who now control the Islands as part of their Indian Ocean Territories. The workers, who by then had lived there for four generations and had become virtually cut off from the outside world, stayed on.

Today the Cocos Malays are a unique community with their own language, traditions and values. Always hardworking, devout and loyal, they have managed to  survive, mostly in isolation, for eight  generations. They have developed their own quinine, mainly based on the abundant seafood that the islands produce with the addition of vegetables they can grow and the chickens that range freely around the settlement.

I feel privileged to have been invited in to the Primary School on Home Island, where the bulk of the Cocos Malay population live, and to have swapped stories with the lively, smiling, black-eyed children and their charming parents, many of whom work as assistants in the school. Others come with food each day and sit with their children while they eat at recess and lunch time.

On West Island, which has a more mixed population and a District High School, I was based in the

Display set up by the students of Cocos Islands District High School for Elaine Forrestal’s visit

Library each day, doing workshops with all of the classes. Halfway through the first day I was surprised to see an enormous lion staring balefully at me from one of the pin-up boards. ‘I know that lion from somewhere,’ I thought. It was definitely not a local as they have lizards, but not lions, on Cocos. During a break I decided to confront this almost life-sized creature and found that James Foley had drawn it several years before! Then I discovered some smaller, more discreet pieces of artwork by Matt Ottley and felt that I was in highly esteemed company.

In terms of a pristine environment and friendly, self sufficient people it is difficult to imagine a more pleasant place than the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

Elaine Forrestal presenting a creative writing workshop in Singapore

In spite of a tropical downpour at lunchtime on the third day, it was far too hot in Singapore to be wearing boots!

In any case the three-day Camp, run by the organisers of the Creative Writing Project which celebrates Singapore’s 50 years of independence, was quite the opposite of a Boot Camp. The best creative writers from at least six different schools across Singapore came together at the Nan Hua Primary School and worked diligently on their stories and poems from 9am to 4pm each day – in spite of the fact that they were on their school holidays. We did all have a welcome break at lunch time while delicious, freshly cooked, Chinese food was delivered in individual lunch boxes to the 52 students, four presenters, numerous staff of the Ministry of Education and volunteers from the local community.

The students had chosen prose or poetry as their preferred form of writing and had been evenly divided between the two prose and two poetry presenters. As a prose presenter I have not yet seen the poems produced, but the stories the students have written are notable for the variety of subject matter and the quality of the writing. The insights and ideas shared by the students, with me and with their peers, are an indication of Singapore’s success as an independent Nation and its determination to continue to be a significant player on the world stage well into the future.

My thanks to the organisers, WritingWA and CWP, for making my trip to Singapore possible, and to the students for their enthusiasm for writing and their participation in the workshops throughout all three days of the Camp. I wish you all the best of luck and I will be looking out for your names in future publications.

Dr Georg Caroll playing the harpsichord at the launch of To See the World

It is most unusual for me to write two blogs in one week, but I need to tell you about an exciting new spin-off from the Rose de Freycinet story, To See the World.

On Sunday, in the Government House Ballroom, a most extraordinary event took place. Dr Georg Caroll, who played the harpsichord at the launch of the book a year ago, has been working on his own original piece of music inspired by the story of Rose’s voyage around the world between 1817 and 1820. During his time as Artist-in-Residence at the State Library of Western Australia Dr Caroll, or Jordi as he prefers to be called, set out to capture the essence of the voyage aboard the sailing ship Uranie in music. After more than a year of writing, trialling, workshopping and more writing he performed the finished Freycinet Suite for the first time, accompanied by the Perth Baroque Orchestra. The Freycinet Suite is a stunning, original and immensely satisfying evocation of a long sea voyage, often through uncharted waters, encountering many hazards and hostile people as well as being highly acclaimed and treated like royalty, once the achievements of the voyage became known. Jordi has captured the swaying motion, the fierce squalls of wind and the excitement of reaching land at last. He has also incorporated a little tune, originally sung by Aboriginal women and written down by Louis de Freycinet while the ship was in port in Sydney. This simple melody became part of an exchange of ‘Notes’ from the Colony of New South Wales. The ‘Notes’ were eventually translated into English by West Austraian, Tom Cullotty.

After being practically unknown except by their families in France until a few years ago, the details of the remarkable voyage of the Uranie, with Rose and Louis on board, have been captured in paintings, books, and music. It is amazing how a good story will expand and travel, developing a momentum of its own and drawing in new audiences.

We are just waiting for the movie now.