Charting new waters: Woombye author, Peta Miller, sets sail with debut novel

by Janine Hill

AFTER selling other people’s books for a living, Woombye’s Peta Miller now finds herself selling her own.

Peta, who has worked in bookstores and the publishing industry all her life, has achieved what many other writers only aspire to: having a book published by a major publisher.

The Ship’s Midwife, published by Harper Collins, was launched at Berkelouw’s book store, Eumundi, where Peta works, in June.  

The historical fiction novel was inspired by a true story Peta stumbled across during a trip to Stradbroke Island.

There she read a plaque at the Dunwich cemetery about a ship called The Emigrant, which had been on its way from England to Australia in 1850 with 276 people aboard when a typhus outbreak claimed 18 lives.

The vessel was forced to quarantine at Stradbroke where another 26 people died.

“I found myself wondering what it takes for someone to leave everyone behind and go somewhere where they don’t know what awaits them,” Peta said.

“This was in the days before television and mobile phones and the internet so people didn’t know then what they know now.”

Peta began researching not only The Emigrant but other ships which made similar journeys. Her research extended to all things from the period, including language and clothing, to ensure the book she wanted to write was accurate for the time.

Peta initially wrote a young adult fiction novel which won her the Charlotte Waring Barton Award from the Children’s Book Council of Australia. This included a mentorship through Harper Collins which led to a publishing deal and to her re-writing the story as an adult fiction manuscript.

She said she was not tempted to try and tell the true story of The Emigrant and the people aboard, which has already been done.

“I’d read so many other journals from people so that, in a way, the story of people on The Emigrant became one of the stories, so I wasn’t telling that,” she said.

She will make a brief appearance at the Cooroy library on 1 August from 2-3pm to sign copies of The Ship’s Midwife.

Woombye’s Peta Miller is writing her own success story with The Ship’s Midwife, published by Harper Collins.