''Justin Bayard'' is a 1955 novel by Australian author

Jon Cleary Jon Stephen Cleary (22 November 191719 July 2010) was an Australian writer and novelist. He wrote numerous books, including '' The Sundowners'' (1951), a portrait of a rural family in the 1920s as they move from one job to the next, and '' The ...

about a policeman working in the

Kimberley region The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert, Great Sandy and Tanami Desert, Tanami deserts ...

. It was Cleary's sixth novel.

Plot

Justin Bayard is a mounted policeman in the Kimberley escorting an aboriginal warrior, Emu Foot, back to headquarters at

Fitzroy Crossing Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: ** FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Bea ...

for murdering another aboriginal. Emu Foot is being pursued by warriors from the Kapunda tribe seeking revenge. Bayard is attacked by Kapundas and is badly injured, despite killing several of them. He takes refuge at an isolated cattle homestead Kootapatamba, owned by Tad Kirkbridge. Bayard soon realises he has walked into a tense domestic situation: Kirkbridge is unhappily married to the neurotic Julie, who is cheating on him with their neighbour, Crispin, and encouraging him to sell Kootapatamba. The head stock manager is Ned Palady whose mixed race daughter Blanche takes a shine to Bayard. Crispin is trying to persuade Kirkbridge to join him in a new method of transporting cattle. Emu Foot is kept prisoner in a boab tree that has been hollowed out but ultimately escapes. Bayard falls in love with Blanche and fights off another attack from Kapundas. Julie is killed by a spear to the back and Bayard interrogates members of the homestead. He discovers that the killer is Left Hand Spider, an aboriginal stockman who did not want Julie to see Kootapatamba. Spider is killed fleeing Bayard. Emu Foot is also killed by Kapundas. Bayard and Blanche get married. Tad Kirkbridge sells the homestead to Blanche and her father and Bayard decides to work on it as head stockman.

Background

Cleary researched the book by visiting the Kimberley in March 1954 with his wife, following an extended period of living overseas.

Reception

The novel was generally well received by critics. and was Cleary's third novel to be published in the US. The reviewer from the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' commented that "Mr Cleary knows his trade; he is a shrewd and intelligent operator. But I wish he would set his heights higher." ''The Bulletin'' called it "a considerable improvement over anything he leary had hitherto done... Beneath it all throbs the steady pulse of the great engines of the “Saturday Evening Post’’; and if they don’t know how to regulate a popular story, no one does." It was banned in Ireland.

Film Adaptation

The novel was later filmed as ''

Dust in the Sun ''Dust in the Sun'' is a 1958 Australian mystery film adapted from the 1955 novel '' Justin Bayard'' by Jon Cleary and produced by the team of Lee Robinson and Chips Rafferty. The film stars British actress Jill Adams and an indigenous-Australian ...

'' (1958), which relocated the action to the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

. Cleary had little to do with the film even though director Lee Robinson had worked for him in the Army; as late as 2006 he claimed he had never seen it.Jon Cleary Interviewed by Stephen Vagg: Oral History
at National Film and Sound Archive

Radio

The novel was serialised on radio in 1956 with Ray Barrett reading it.

External links

Serialisation of the novel in ''The Argus'' 1955

References

{{Jon Cleary 1955 Australian novels Novels set in Western Australia Bayard, Justin William Collins, Sons books Novels by Jon Cleary Kimberley (Western Australia)