When Edward Marsden and his son James sailed to the tiny port town of Cossack in the northwest of Western Australia in 1885, they were unprepared for the rough, parochial town and its challenging climate. Arriving soon after the murders of two bank officials in nearby Roebourne, they joined a shaken community still coming to terms with the deaths.
Soon joined by Edward's other two children, the Marsden family carved out a new life, forming unique friendships and becoming part of the fabric of the Cossack community, among them William Shakespeare Hall, former explorer and pioneer of the northwest.
Cossack was often murderous, confronting and challenging, with a mixture of nationalities supporting a pearling industry, pastoral stations and gold rushes. But it was a town its people loved and fought for.
In her unique style, Jenny Kroonstuiver blends carefully researched historical events and real characters with the fictional Marsden family, at a time when Cossack was at its peak in the late nineteenth century.
Cossack Pearl provides a fascinating glimpse of a once vibrant and turbulent town that is now just a few immaculately restored buildings and a tourist attraction.