Thank you for visiting our site. Southern Scribes is a writers' group made up of 12 members who live on the south coast of Western Australia, in or near the towns of Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun. The population of these towns is around 500.

Ravensthorpe, 50km from the coast, was established in 1900 when gold was discovered in the area. The country around it is highly productive farm land and some of our members are from farming families.
 

Hopetoun is a small town on the edge of the Southern Ocean which provided access by sea for the early settlers and their provisions.  It is the gateway to a World Wilderness area, the Fitzgerald River National Park, a wild and wonderful place, full of exotic flora and fauna and magnifient scenery.

Since posting this site we have heard from another writers' group in the US, also called Southern Scribes! We are interested in hearing from other groups of writers and how they operate and what they do. Maybe we could swap our publications. Meanwhile, check out the other pages of this site and see the books we have published and some examples of our work.

Our latest book, Sky Larks, was launched in November 2009. It completed a trilogy of prose and poetry on Land, Sea and Sky. The books are presented singly or in a boxed set. The project took some years but we are proud of the result which is illustrated with many photographs and watercolours by our members and was launched to sound of music as three of the poems inspired musicians to turn them into songs. One of these, Mother Sky by Kay Hanarahan reads:

Mother Sky holds our earth
In her blue embrace
Provides life-giving air
Give us day and night
Nourishes with sunshine and rain
Cools with gentle breath
Grumbles and explodes in anger
Punishes with violent fury.

She delivers us safely across the planet
In flimsy cocoons
Carries our messages in unseen waves
Over land and sea.
As we delve into her heavenly depths
She releases her secrets
One by one.

In our book, Wildflower Country, Helen Taylor describes the wonder of our natural bush and the flowers that grow in abundance all the year round.

My Wildflower Country

Where winds gust over mountain and plain
where clouds roll in bringing floodiing rain

by banks of river or in salmon gum glade
flowers revel in sun or peep from the shade.

In banksia thicket and mallee woodland
on coastal dunes, creeks and claypans

in crevice in rock tenaciously thrive
on poor sandplain resolutely survive.

Each only grows in the soil of its choice.
Over all the wide land, hills and valleys rejoice

in shapes so bizarre and hues that surprise
just waiting for poets to immortalise.

Helen Taylor