AustLit

In The Apple Lady, two characters make an overland journey from Port Davey to the slopes of Mount Picton. In reality, such a trek through rugged Southwest Tasmania takes several days. Marchant's protagonists, however, accomplish the walk in a few hours, before spending the night at the town of Craycroft. This supposed settlement provides a useful clue to Marchant's source material. Maps of Tasmania published in Walch's Almanac, accessible to the author through the Bodleian, where Marchant did her research, do not distinguish between established towns and proposed (or gazetted) settlements. One of these 'phantom towns' is Craycroft. The Almanac map also contains limited topographical details, perhaps leading Marchant to suppose that the Southwest Wilderness presented an easy challenge for walkers.