Propelled synopsis. Circa August 2020

In 1972, 18 year old Reece Holland witnesses a drug importation and rip-off gone wrong. He comes into possession of 50 kilograms of cannabis belonging to the Painters and Dockers. He is hunted by two groups of murderous criminals, leaving a trail of death and misfortune.

With Reece's family in serious danger, his best friend Stewie contrives to eliminate some of the hunters. It provides a way out for Reece but Stewie dies in the process. Stewie's 80 year old grandfather and a WW2 mate take revenge and kill more of the hunters. Reece's father Ray, and his uncle Tony who lives in WA contrive a way for Reece to flee to Fremantle.

Reece is befriended by a Nyoongar man and learns a lot about Fremantle around the time the Europeans arrived and subsequently.

The trail goes cold until one of the criminals, a corrupt drug squad detective finds Tony and uses him to get to Reece and the drugs. The story climaxes with the kidnapping of Tony and his wife, after which Reece leaves the country.

A series of recollections by some of the characters paint a picture of aspects of Australian life in the 1940s and the 1970s.

Synopsis: Aarli 1973

A former Sydney crime reporter recounts a story in the form of a novel. It begins with a very young child removed from her mother and taken to the cold southwest. She lives in austerity and sadness, until adopted at age twelve and taken east by a white couple. After brief years of stability, calamity and sadness descend in the form of divorce and mental illness, as well as the apparent presence of the long dead. Later, death comes to the house at Coogee and she is left in the guardianship of an incompetent and reckless man.

At eighteen, a windfall opens the door for Veronica Spurr to redeem her past and escape her present. She and her boyfriend, two years older, escape Sydney: her to find her family; and him to escape his disabling grief. The windfall has come in the form of a very large sum of money – the proceeds of an ongoing money-laundering operation.

The money and the accompanying record of transactions belong to criminals who identify and pursue the young thieves. Despite their naivety, they manage to evade capture over the ensuing months. That is until a rival group set the relentless and malevolent Paul Augustine upon them. Over time, the money-laundering is investigated and broken-up and the players are in prison or dead. However, the hunt continues.

The two young people drive across Australia and fetch up in Fremantle where, with the passage of time, they are lulled into thinking they may have escaped. The court cases have been big news. They settle into a very different life and through a chance meeting with a black musician, begin to learn the true history of Fremantle. It is there that Veronica begins to assemble fragments of her life.

However, the hunter returns to his hated Perth, the place where he joined the military and from where he saw two combat tours in South Vietnam. Chaos and the murderous pursuit resume and, after managing some narrow escapes, they are finally caught. The young man, Levi Greenfell, is shot by Augustine and nearly drowns in Fremantle Harbour. After recovering he is sentenced to three months in prison, on charges of obstruction.

On the day of the shooting, an unexpected and dramatic reunion occurs. Veronica’s unknown sister, three years older, has never stopped searching for her sister and their mother. While Levi is in prison, Veronica and Jules embark on their first journey north. Jules describes the day her sister was born and also the day their lives were pulled apart. Despite the joy that the reunion brings, despair and disappointment travel with them.

Fremantle Prison is a dangerous place for Levi Greenfell, given the hunter’s connections there. However, through a mutual acquaintance, he is reprieved. After his release, Levi, Veronica and her sister and son Jimmy Dean, travel as far as the northern tip of the Dampier Peninsula.

With help from local people, they unearth information about their parents, who came on trepang boats from islands far to the north. The sisters believe they have found the place their parents fished, and where each might have been born. They return to Broome and there is another reunion.

They find their mother, and the reunion is sweet but very bitter.

Synopsis

Jazzcandy 27.12.21

This is a story involving a jewel robbery in Melbourne in 1973.

At the same time, 'the case of the dead sharpies (a Melbourne sub-culture)' continues, and deaths continue even as the police investigation proceeds.

There is a link between the two cases, given that some of the robbery participants are about to be implicated in the sharpie murders.

This draws the principal investigator of the killings into the trajectory of the robbery. Detective Senior Constable Giovanni Watson has made a name for himself. Several coronial findings have been overturned and the case has been given additional resources. He is lauded and ostracised in equal measure.

The perpetrators of the sharpie killings are brazen criminals who wear the uniform of the Victoria Police Force. The Saints, as they refer to themselves, are available on a contract basis to undertake various crimes. They also deliver their own version of justice and had always seen themselves as bullet-proof. However, their days are numbered particularly following the findings of the Kaye Inquiry.

Detective Giovanni Watson is their bete noir, intent on hastening their downfall. Watson has been seconded to the Homicide Squad, and unknown to him a long-time member of the gang is working the sharpie case alongside him.

Following the arrest of two Saints in relation to a sharpie murder at Yarra Bend, Watson gleans information that leads him to realise the gang may be involved in a very large jewel heist in the coming days. One of the arrested Saints has let slip something. That man is now a marked man.

That man’s death in custody is blamed on Watson and evidence is fabricated to support the accusation. Watson is subsequently arrested and placed in a cell at the City Watch House. He and his pregnant wife are threatened with reprisals if he does not drop the current lines of enquiry.

His Homicide colleague makes it clear that he should desist, but rejects Watson's view that he is himself involved in criminal activities.

WPC Richard and Detective Inspector Stack work to have Watson cleared and released.

Meanwhile, planning for the robbery continues. Isaac Menchen has been requested to cut gemstones from Burma and his premises are to be the target of the heist.

WPC Richard has a black belt in karate and is also very good looking, previously used undercover in the breaking of the bribery scheme involving senior police and Collins Street doctors providing abortions.

She is recruited to again go undercover; this time to infiltrate the gang planning the robbery.

Running parallel to this is the story of the Brink twins, Aboriginal musicians who have recently arrived in Melbourne and who are living with relatives in Fitzroy. In pursuit of their music, they base themselves at the Equator night club and audition for new band members. The Equator is popular with Melbourne sharpies on account of the owner being a former Pascoe Vale sharpie leader.

Watson meets Jasmine and Candice Brink and hears them rehearsing in the course of his investigation of the Yarra Bend murder. The victim had an Equator stamp on his wrist and Watson is surprised when he realises that he knows the owner from several years before. Both are former Pascoe Vale sharpies and both are surprised at the other's career choices.

The building housing the Equator backs onto the building housing Menchen and Sons. The rooftop of the Equator is a hangout for musicians playing there. It is here one evening that the twins hear gunshots and witness a wounded man stashing a bag before climbing over the side of the building.

Unknown to any of the Melbourne players, a group of Sydney gangsters had gotten wind of the jewel heist and were planning to steal the proceeds. The toe-cutter gang have a fearsome reputation and irresistible methods for achieving their aims.

As the sharpie case draws tighter, Watson and his wife are attacked in their car on the way home. He is shot through the stomach and part of his spleen. The bullet passes through him and lodges in her side, near the baby. She can manage to drive to hospital. While there a further attempt is made on Watson’s life (morphine overdose in the drip).

The twins find the airline bag containing the gemstones and hide it at ground level (by the skeleton of the 1920s bricklayer). Later they retrieve it and hide it. The toe-cutter gang grab Candice Brink and hold her hostage. WPC Tracy Richard manages to rescue her before she suffers serious harm, and is able to retrieve the jewels.

A number of court cases are scheduled for the County Court of Victoria.

Watson recovers at home and the pregnancy progresses well.

A baby girl.