The Art Deco Mansion in St Lucia

The Art Deco Mansion in St Lucia

St Lucia, the Brisbane suburb famed for its university campus, emerged despite world wars, Spanish Influenza and Depression. In the 1950s, kangaroos hopped across open paddocks; snakes slithered through scrub. The sanitary cart, ice man, milkman and whistle-tooting postman traversed rutted dirt roads to service the community. And, each morning, sun-warmed milk churned the stomachs of the students at Ironside State School.

Then, as bold new scaffolding reached for the sky, people watched, amazed, and asked Who could build this huge mansion-with an elevator in it-amid post war building constraints?

In this St Lucia setting, a wide-eyed child of the outback overcame her terror of big schools, big cities, and big universities. A man of vision, faith and love inspired Ruth to rise above such challenges.

This is the story of her grandfather. The third book of Ruth Back Bonetti's Midnight Sun to Southern Cross trilogy gives his own voice from interviews and voluminous correspondence, to answer the question: What drove this Migrant-Made-Good?