14 years ago
Tue Jan 12 2010, 07:19am
I've been re-reading Billy/Winter Door and I keep wondering. Where is Winnoway Farm? Where's Leary and Hopetown, etc? Are they real places?
I believe they're in Australia; I mean, Rage walks through the bush tapping sticks to scare away snakes; they speak like Aussies; Logan mentions Skippy and Flipper and there's a couple of other references to the way school is structured that can only, really, be Aus.
But where in Australia gets the bleak, snowy sort of weather that Winnoway Farm gets (yes, I know the Winter Door causes it, but still, it's snowy before the door is opened). I'm gathering it's inland a little - there's no mention of sea or ocean, and it's colder inland anyway. Being a QLD-lander all my life makes me immediately rule out anywhere in QLD :P it snows extremely rarely anywhere in our state.
Any ideas where?
I've tried searching for Leary and Hopetown just in case they exist on Google Maps :P and found nadda. I realise they're fictional places, but they may have been based on somewhere...real.
Mystic Ward
14 years ago
Mystic Ward
Twentyfamilies Gypsy
There is a hopetoun in Victoria, in the east of the state so it might snow there. Same pronunciation, different spelling. I'm guessing that the books lanscapes are based on Victorian rural places. IC would have lots of knowledge about rural towns.
14 years ago
Mon Feb 08 2010, 05:07pm
I just read Billy Thunder and thhe Night Gate and the Winter Door. It can't be in Australia because there are wolves, so I would think in the northern states of USA or somewhere like that. And Logan was putting on a southern-state accent so it wouldn't be in the southern states of USA anyway. (Or at least, that's what my logic has concluded) Canada is a possibility, too.
EDIT: I was thinking maybe IC based it off Hopetoun, but set it in another country. ~:|
I see your point, Smuffy (especially about the wolves - I can't think of anywhere in Australia where wolves might plausibly be found) but somehow I can't really imagine the books being set anywhere other than Australia. As Min said, everything from the way the characters talk to the way they live their lives seems very Aussie to me. Rural/country Aussie especially - the large properties and bush landscape put me in mind of rural Qld or NSW, but I agree that the snowy winters seem to rule out the former. Victoria does seem like the most likely candidate, I think.
That said, I think the location is deliberately vague - a sort of Every-Man's Countryside, which could be just about anywhere. I also wonder about where Rage lived before coming to Winnoway - it still seems to have been a rural property, but how far away, I wonder?
Just a couple of points - the wolves weren't wolves though. They were creatures pulled through from the Nightgate adopting the shape of wolves when they were near to Rage (and pig when close to Logan, etc).
And Logan's mock accents are all a part of revealing his acting talent, I think. We certainly get enough tv from the US to make those accents stick in our minds as well, heh :P
Mystic Ward
14 years ago
Mystic Ward
Twentyfamilies Gypsy
I agree on the accent thing. My kids both spoke with an American accent for a while at about age four. Watching Sesame Street and other US kiddy shows is how they learned a lot of their language skills.
I like the thought of Every-Man's countryside Firefall. It is a bit like that. From memory there are descriptions in the books that could be any number of small country towns that I've visited.
13 years ago
Mon Apr 12 2010, 12:44pm
i think based on the knowledge that in the books there are references to wolves higher up + rage does say that maybe they came down further to find food with the extended wether. Now i know that later on rage discovers that they are sent by the wizard through the winter door, but i had a thought that it could possibly be that there are feral dogs in the area. Getting back to where Leary and hopetown are i think there is not a specific place as such but it could be based in one of those country towns inland near our mountain range. i might add that im from NSW, and that from my travels (we go away for a weekend once a month for archery tournaments in different areas of NSW) which usually take us to some small towns that are really old and some more rural areas, there are places in NSW where there are large lakes with lots of dead trees in them. Also many of the places we go to have a hilly almost mountainous terrain with flat parts that are perfect for farming. There are also places with mountains in the area that you can see. They are just places that make me remember Winnoway farm. Also many of the places i have been to are exceptionally cold in winter and i think if you had one of those cold rainy years there is a possibility of a heavier snow. Though there are no wolves in aus from my information, foxes and wild dogs are there and i heard a howl two nights in a row at one of the places i went to so i suppose the idea could arise of wolves being in the area. ???[act]chews lip thinking of some places that are possible candidates[/act]
Well there are a lot of places in Australia which snow. The Blue Mountains near sydney and all up and down the great dividing range for starters.
I think it's possible that its in Tasmania. I've been to Tasmania and the weather seems to fit as well as there is heaps of rural land. Since Tasmania is so small the Great dividing ranges take up quite a bit of the land (and i drove allll around Tassie) EVERYWHERE is hilly, its annoying to walk anywhere, as well as the weather, its almost like England, in the summer its hot one day then 10 degrees the next!
And for snow, it snows quite alot down there, well in certain places. But I'm sure all of Tas has had some snow at least once.
I think if we focus less on the crazy weather due to it being caused by the winter door and think more about the towns in different p;laces also we can't forget that it's IC's imagination that created these wonderful places so they may just be a concoction.
I actually pictured Rage living on a farm in Tasmania somewhere. The setting seemed Tassie-ish, and the weather, of course, was only caused by the Winter Door, as Nefertiti mentioned, but I'm thinking it would be a windy, sea-side place anyway.