Winners of Australian Book Industry Awards
$17.70 with 23 percent savings
RRP: $22.99
FREE delivery Tuesday, 13 May to Sydney 2000 on your first order
Or fastest delivery Monday, 12 May
Only 5 left in stock (more on the way).
$$17.70 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$17.70
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Delivery cost, delivery date and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon AU
Amazon AU
Ships from
Amazon AU
Sold by
Amazon AU
Amazon AU
Sold by
Amazon AU
Returns
Eligible for change of mind returns within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for change of mind returns within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition within 30 days of receipt for change of mind. If this item is damaged or defective, you may be entitled to a remedy after 30 days. Visit Returning Faulty Items for more information.
Read our returns policies
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer—no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera, scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Lucy Treloar
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Salt Creek Paperback – 28 February 2017

by Lucy Treloar (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars 779 ratings
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$17.70","priceAmount":17.70,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"17","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"70","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"Wkf6qj%2FQs1EBE2UehlE5HePYIrQMAD1kRTw2SlZoY4HVVmi%2FIEDq5wEvDVIzkkN4Zp8eQDRLucbrBelY%2FS7xhNETZqUmNkGMPgnPFgGerJC3%2BKchq2Hv2lelBcKDEoXr5a3JrpNB%2FvMcz6lxMThcSdmHrrlLSDcD","locale":"en-AU","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN AWARD 2016
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2017 INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD
WINNER OF THE 2016 INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION

From the winner of the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Pacific Region) and the 2013 Writing Australia Unpublished Manuscript Award

"Salt Creek introduces a capacious talent" The Australian

Some things collapse slow, and cannot always be rebuilt, and even if a thing can be remade it will never be as it was.

Salt Creek, 1855, lies at the far reaches of the remote, beautiful and inhospitable coastal region, the Coorong, in the new province of South Australia. The area, just opened to graziers willing to chance their luck, becomes home to Stanton Finch and his large family, including fifteen-year-old Hester Finch.

Once wealthy political activists, the Finch family has fallen on hard times. Cut adrift from the polite society they were raised to be part of, Hester and her siblings make connections where they can: with the few travellers that pass along the nearby stock route - among them a young artist, Charles - and the Ngarrindjeri people they have dispossessed. Over the years that pass, and Aboriginal boy, Tully, at first a friend, becomes part of the family.

Stanton's attempts to tame the harsh landscape bring ruin to the Ngarrindjeri people's homes and livelihoods, and unleash a chain of events that will tear the family asunder. As Hester witnesses the destruction of the Ngarrindjeri's subtle culture and the ideals that her family once held so close, she begins to wonder what civilization is. Was it for this life and this world that she was educated?
PRAISE FOR SALT CREEK

"this fine, accomplished novel is a respectful and unobtrusively beautiful homage to the Ngarrindjeri people" Sydney Morning Herald

"... written with a profound respect for history: with an understanding that beyond a certain point, the past and its people are unknowable." Sydney Morning Herald

Read more
Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    416 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Picador Australia
  4. Publication date
    28 February 2017
  5. Dimensions
    12.8 x 2.6 x 19.7 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1760550957
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1760550950
Next slide of product details

Frequently bought together

Salt Creek
This item: Salt Creek
$17.70
Only 5 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon AU.
+
Days of Innocence and Wonder
$26.95
Only 3 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon AU.
Total Price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
One of these items ships sooner than the other.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

From the brand

Previous page
  2. The Ragpicker King
    He Would Never
    Always Home, Always Homesick
    Slaying the Vampire Conqueror

    Preorder Now

  3. RecipeTin Eats: Tonight: Dinners for every night of the week from Australia's favourite cook
    Here One Moment
    From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir: The Autobiography
    Total Control

    New Releases

  4. RecipeTin Eats: Dinner: 150 recipes from Australia’s most popular cook
    River Song
    Before the Coffee Gets Cold: The heart-warming million-copy sensation from Japan
    James: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024

    Best Sellers

  5. The Simple Dinner Edit: Simplify your cooking with 80+ fast, low-cost dinner ideas
    Good Cooking Every Day: Simple recipes. Beautiful menus. All year round.
    Everyday Eats: Simple skills, recipes and advice to up your cooking game
    Wholesome by Sarah: Fast weeknight dinner ideas for the whole family

    Cookbooks

  6. Molly: A Prequel to the Dressmaker
    The Women: The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller from the author of The Nightingale
    Dusk
    Here One Moment

    Fiction Faves

  7. Adventures Unlimited: The Land of Lost Things
    The 13-Storey Treehouse
    Dear Zoo: 40th Anniversary Edition
    The Gruffalo

    Kids Picks

Next page

Product description

Book Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN AWARD 2016

A stunning debut novel from the winner of the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Pacific Region) and the 2013 Writing Australia Unpublished Manuscript Award.

About the Author

Lucy Treloar was born in Malaysia and educated in England, Sweden and Melbourne. Her novel Salt Creek (2015) won the Dobbie Literary Award among others, and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the UK's Walter Scott Prize. Wolfe Island (2019), her second novel, won the Barbara Jefferis Award and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's and NSW literary awards. She is a previous winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Pacific region).

Lucy's essays and short fiction have appeared in publications including The Saturday Paper, Meanjin, The Age, Overland, Best Australian Stories and Foundational Fictions in South Australian History.

A graduate of the University of Melbourne and RMIT, Lucy lives in inner Melbourne.


Winner of the Indie Award Best Debut Fiction, 2016
Short-listed for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, 2016
Winner of the ABIA Matt Richell Award for New Writer, 2016
Short-listed for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, 2016
Short-listed for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, 2016
Winner of the Dobbie Literary Award, 2016
Winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Pacific Region), 2014
Winner of the Writing Australia Unpublished Manuscript Award, 2013
Asialink Writers Residency, 2011

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador Australia (28 February 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1760550957
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1760550950
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.8 x 2.6 x 19.7 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 out of 5 stars 779 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Lucy Treloar

Lucy Treloar

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
779 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Customers say

Customers find this book to be a fascinating tale with excellent characterizations of the key people. They praise its readability, with one customer noting it's a well-written story of a family.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more

7 customers mention ‘Story quality’7 positive0 negative

Customers find the story fascinating, with one describing it as totally gripping and another noting how the characters lived their lives with interest and pain.

"Totally gripping story with strong characters...." Read more

"...I got so involved with the characters and lived their lives with interest and pain...." Read more

"Salt Creek provides a detailed and fascinating account of one family's struggle to open up grazing in the Coorong area of South Australia in the..." Read more

"...What discussions it has commenced and augmented. And yet it is a heart felt story. This is what Historical Fiction can do so well." Read more

5 customers mention ‘Readability’5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be a great read, with one customer noting it is a well-written story of a family.

"...A very well written story of a family, their religious and cultural beliefs set in a time of great cultural upheavals in a wild and unforgiving land..." Read more

"This was such a good read. I got so involved with the characters and lived their lives with interest and pain...." Read more

"...There seems little left to say about this wonderful novel...." Read more

"...Written without censure but nevertheless compellingly..A skillful interweaving of a patriarchal family with the environment and the travails of his..." Read more

3 customers mention ‘Character development’3 positive0 negative

Customers praise the excellent characterizations of the key people in the book.

"Totally gripping story with strong characters...." Read more

"This was such a good read. I got so involved with the characters and lived their lives with interest and pain...." Read more

"...There are such sad parts but also excellent characterisations of the key people - sometimes you feel you could shoot the father!..." Read more

Top reviews from Australia

  • Chris Fry
    4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended reading
    Reviewed in Australia on 8 August 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Totally gripping story with strong characters. Reading this tale from the perspective of 2016 often left me feeling frustrated that the characters acted as they did but this, in itself, shows the Victorian mores more clearly in the writing. A very well written story of a family, their religious and cultural beliefs set in a time of great cultural upheavals in a wild and unforgiving land which eventually impacted every character in the story.
    3 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
    Reviewed in Australia on 29 September 2020
    Verified Purchase
    This was such a good read. I got so involved with the characters and lived their lives with interest and pain. I enjoyed reading about the life on the Coorong at settlement and the interaction of the aboriginal people.
    Many aspects to this book that kept me involved and challenged.
    Helpful
     Report
  • Amazon Customer
    4.0 out of 5 stars There are such sad parts but also excellent characterisations of the key people ...
    Reviewed in Australia on 10 August 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Salt Creek provides a detailed and fascinating account of one family's struggle to open up grazing in the Coorong area of South Australia in the 1860s. There are such sad parts but also excellent characterisations of the key people - sometimes you feel you could shoot the father! The e hard aspects of life are well described but at times, it is harrowing. An absorbing read.
    Helpful
     Report
  • G. Johnston
    5.0 out of 5 stars There seems little left to say about this wonderful novel. Except to say that part of the ...
    Reviewed in Australia on 27 October 2017
    Verified Purchase
    What a delightful undertaking. There seems little left to say about this wonderful novel. Except to say that part of the genus of it is to have seen the hole in the literary canon and adroitly filled it. How necessary is this novel. What discussions it has commenced and augmented. And yet it is a heart felt story. This is what Historical Fiction can do so well.
    Helpful
     Report
  • Yvonne Tester
    3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
    Reviewed in Australia on 19 April 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Fact or fiction?
    Helpful
     Report
  • Christy
    4.0 out of 5 stars Loved this book
    Reviewed in Australia on 16 November 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Loved this book. The way it outlines how Europeans, unknowingly in many cases, abused the environment which the aborigines depended upon for their existence is a cause for shame. Written without censure but nevertheless compellingly..A skillful interweaving of a patriarchal family with the environment and the travails of his children.
    Helpful
     Report
  • cathy retter
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent landscape of the Coorong
    Reviewed in Australia on 1 April 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Excellently woven story of the landscape of the Coorong and a family affected by a proud autocratic father with bad business sense.
    Helpful
     Report
  • Carol Taylor
    4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Australian Tale
    Reviewed in Australia on 23 February 2017
    Verified Purchase
    this was a fascinating tale of a simple Australian family coping as best they could with the harsh conditions and isolation of the Australian bush.
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

  • MissD
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great Story
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 October 2017
    Verified Purchase
    A wonderful book. As a woman it makes you value the freedom to have you own iife and how much (and how little in some places) has changed. Evocative of a time and place which was harsh and beautiful at the same time.
    Report
  • Vasiliki Mazis
    5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular and grand
    Reviewed in the United States on 24 November 2017
    Verified Purchase
    I loved this book and was fascinated by the history it told. Although born in South Australia I had not read any fiction based on its history so found this novel an historical gem as well as a beautifully crafted work of literature. The story of the Finch family is noble, ambitious , humorous and tragic and the narrator a strong female voice in a patriarchal world. This is a must read and so good I imagined it as a film while reading it.
    Report
  • Alexandra Readman
    4.0 out of 5 stars a great read
    Reviewed in the United States on 26 January 2017
    Verified Purchase
    A very moving and beautifully researched and written novel set not far away from where I live. I found it so evocative of the area and the time in which it is set. The plight of the indigenous people and the relationships within the family are full of drama and very convincing. A great read thanks Lucy Treloar!
    Report
  • cornsplicer
    4.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing on many fronts.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 December 2020
    Verified Purchase
    I suppose that in every era the human story is the unchanging drives of greed, exploitation, control, and domination and the effect it has on others. It echoes down the millenia despite our technological progress.

    Will it all end in disaster or unexpected outcomes?

    Set in mid Victorian colonial South Australia, this is the story of one family led by a very flawed patriarch. If this is how everyone lived then, we have much to be thankful for today.

    The treatment of women and indiginous people at that time was disgusting, and such behavior must be eradicated in today’s world.

    The narrative was slow burning but compelling and well written in the vernacular of that age. Having driven through Salt Creek three years ago, I can imagine the desolation and austere circumstances described.

    So well worth a read, even if it leaves you feeling sad by the end of it.
    Report
  • Julie Wyer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Salt creek treasure
    Reviewed in the United States on 11 October 2016
    Verified Purchase
    I loved this book. Beautifully written and an interesting time in Australian history. Very sad in parts but uplifting too.
    Report