A fictional adventure to rival the most popular
reality-TV show. A gripping story of close encounters with Australia’s
past and the impact of history on future events. How do you live in a world with no cars,
no bras, and no TV? What do you order at the local deli if they don't
sell chips, pies or Coke? Are you still sane if you need to sleep at
9pm? REVIEW Return Ticket is about three teenagers
named Zak, Sam and Shannon, getting stuck back in the 1890's and having
to catch a specific train to get out. They make very good friends with
a girl named Beth but they have to be careful not to change events back
in time. The train that they need to catch keeps getting delayed, so
the two boys go off to find work. Shannan stays with Beth and her family
and learns how hard it is to be a woman back then. Zak finds work as
a gold miner and Sam does a few odd jobs. They get enough money to return
back home on the train but the book ends with them being stuck in the
future… Although set in the past, Return Ticket
has echoes of many of the themes that are so much a part of Warren’s
writing. We see a concern for the environment and our impact on its
development, and in the case of these visitors from the future, just
what impact the very air and germs they have brought with them may be
having on the past. The issues of racial and gender equality are subtly
explored as well as the then new concept of Australia becoming a republic.
I very much enjoyed the strong feeling of history that enwraps this
story of action and movement. 
AUTHOR'S BACKGROUND NOTES return ticket What inspired me to write the book? It's hard
to nail one particular thing. I wanted readers to have a glimpse of
what it must have been like for young people back then. The dangers,
the frustrations and the excitement. And it also has to do with what
I heard the other day on ABC radio. Someone on AWAYE was saying
something like : 'If we forget our past or we don't know it, it's like
we're a person with no memory - we don't know who we are and we've lost
our way.' Warren
INTERVIEW with the author, Warren Flynn Leone: This is quite a different book to your others, Warren. What made you interested in writing about the past? Warren: I'm not sure really. I remember thinking one day that most of us Australians know so little about our own country. Like I'm still surprised at how many people are shocked when I tell them Perth's nearest big city is Denpasar. West Australians live closer to Jakarta than they do to Sydney. Some of our so-called leaders would like us to believe Washington DC is closer! (laughs) I guess I went from thinking about who we are by exploring the landscapes and street scenes of our modern world in Escaping Paradise, to thinking in this book about who we used to be - where we've come from. Leone: Did you have to study much history to write this book? Warren: Well, I didn't think of it as study. But yeah, I spent heaps of time in libraries reading biographies and history books and looking at hundreds of photographs. It was great fun! I just became so absorbed by some of those old stories and some of the faces. Like the photos of some of the Dja Dja Warrung people in their cultural centre in Bendigo. And reading some of the great Wadjella (white fella) stories too. Leone: Was it harder writing this book than say... the Gaz books or Escaping Paradise? Warren: It was different. Before I wrote Escaping Paradise, I took a degree in Indonesian, so I was sort of researching the book a long time before I thought of writing it. But Return Ticket certainly took longer to write than Gaz - because even after the pre-reading I did, I'd write a simple sentence like, 'Shannon picked up her pencil...' and think ... Um, I wonder if they had invented pencils by then? So then I'd race back into the encyclopaedias to check that - yes, pencils had been invented! My respect for some of Australia's great historical novels ... ones like Ruth Park's Playing Beatie Bow, increased with each page I wrote. Leone: So as a teenager yourself, did you enjoy many historical novels? Warren: As a teenager, I read almost nothing! The closest I came to historical books were war comics. Battle of Britain - that kind of stuff. Serious violence and not a girl in sight! (laughs) That's why I wanted to make this book good fun. A great adventure. Some of the historical stories written for kids lately seem to yawningly sedate. Even though this is set a hundred years ago, I wanted it to bounce along and surprise readers. Leone: It is great fun, yet you spent a lot of time getting the background right - Warren: Yeah. Shannon, Sam and Zak find themselves in some unusual situations, but the real past - I mean pre-Federation Victoria - was a fascinating period to be living in. Dangerous and dynamic. I guess I tried to do for younger readers what Peter Carey does for older dudes. Not that I'm claiming it's 100% factual - of course not. I did create a town, Loddon, but I didn't need to invent things that could happen. It was all there already. Like King Jimmy's first word - if you know a little about the Dja Dja Warrung, there was no doubt about what his first word had to be. Leone: Hmm... I'll have to check it. You mentioned dangers before. What kinds of dangers? Do you mean violence ... diseases? Warren: Sure, there were health problems, but no, I was thinking about other kinds of risks. Even crazy accidents - I mean if you just take a stroll through the cemeteries and read the headstones, you quickly get a feel of what it was like back then. So many people drowned, guys got run down by horses, women died in childbirth. And if you were Chinese or an Aborigine, you had to be watching your back all the time. It was tough for everybody, but life was seriously risky for them. Leone: That part of the story set in the mine - when Zak and David are in the water - it seemed to have been written from personal experience. Have you ever been in that kind of situation? Warren: Yeah, I nearly drowned once. But that was in some huge surf, not in a mine. (laughs) But I did go into a gold mine in Kalgoorlie once - and when the miner turned out his light, it was BLACK! Like, you think you know what absence of light is, but when you're a hundred metres below the surface and it's suddenly pitch black, you get a fresh insight on what it means to be 'in the dark!' It was very scary! Leone: You used the word 'dynamic' earlier, but Beth's life, the young woman of the 1890s, her life doesn't seem to change much. At least not until Sam and Shannon come along. Warren: I don't know if she would have seen it that way. And of course, people really didn't know what was around the corner. Changes happened more slowly than they do today, but they still happened. But anyone who's fallen in love will know how your whole world whirls on a new axis when that happens! Love stills sends the stars spinning. Leone: Tell us about the ending. What made you decide to write two endings? Warren: Actually I wanted to write about half a dozen endings, but that might've made the whole thing a bit long. (laughs) And maybe a bit confusing. I don't know what the future will bring. But having choices means we sometimes make the wrong move, take the wrong path. I remember back in the 1990s turning on the TV and it happened to be our then PM, Paul Keating, giving his Redfern Speech - you'll find it on the web - and I thought. 'This is great! This is wonderful! Australia has finally admitted its past. From now on, we'll just keep getting better.' But we didn't. People turned their backs on what Keating said, and many Australians returned to the old lies. When I was in Korea in 2001, the Tampa refugees were vehemently rejected and I felt sick in the guts. I'm pinning my hopes on today's young people, because I think they know more about our history and more about the region we live in than any generation of Australians in the last two hundred years. Leone: Is that the message of this book? Warren: I hope people will enjoy the story. If they think about our past and where we're headed, that's a bonus. Leone: So it's a fun read with something to say. Warren: And a hopeful read ... depending on which ending you prefer. I heard someone on AWAYE the other day, saying something like: 'If we forget our past or we don't know it, it's like we're somebody with no memory - we don't know who we are and we've got no sense of direction.' I think he's right. Knowing where we came from is a good way to take our bearings. A good start to following the best track into the future. Leone: Oh I nearly forgot - the Chinese on the back cover - what does it mean? Warren: It’s a compliment, and a good excuse for readers to start up a conversation with someone who can read Mandarin! Leone: Great! Thanks Warren.
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