
Belltrees - Birthplace of the Last Woman Hanged
Belltrees. It even sounds beautiful - and it is. Belltrees is a magnificent pastoral station in the Hunter Valley. It has been owned and managed by the White family for seven generations. It is special to me because Louisa Collins was born at Belltrees. Her father, Henry Hall, was a convict who worked there, as a shepherd. He lived in one of the tiny convict cottages that still stand on the property. Louisa took her first steps at Belltrees. It is where she learnt to crawl, t

Louisa Collins on the Alan Jones program
I was lucky enough to be invited onto the Alan Jones program on 2GB on Monday to talk about Louisa Collins and Last Woman Hanged. Alan is a staunch supporter of the arts in Australia: song, dance, theatre and literature. He is also a passionate supporter of the telling of Australian stories - and, by chance, he knows Belltrees, the pastoral station where Louisa was born, very well indeed. He was immensely supportive of my mad campaign to get Louisa's story - and the story of