Entertainment
12 December, 2025
Silkwood on national map
FORMER Innisfail teacher Greg Bourke takes readers deep into the steamy, mysterious heart of Far North Queensland with his debut psychological thriller ‘Under Silkwood’.
This engaging tale of passion and betrayal is set against the backdrop of the Silkwood sugar cane fields of the 1980s and the threat of scything cyclones.
The novel follows Darcy Grant, a young, disciplined graduate teacher who arrives in Far North Queensland seeking structure and purpose, only to be drawn into a dangerous web of attraction, family loyalties and long-buried vendettas.
Mr Bourke, who now lives in Brisbane, said the story was born from a nostalgic return to Far North Queensland.
“I penned the outline of the book while staying in a cabin at Etty Bay with a cassowary foraging nearby,” he said.
“The brooding location, combined with the passionate temperament of Silkwood’s Mediterranean families, provided the ideal ingredients for a thriller. The cassowary also made it into the novel.”
Under Silkwood draws on Mr Bourke’s own experience as a high school teacher graduate posted to Innisfail following the deadly Cyclone Winifred in 1986, and his return to the region in 2006 as part of the recovery team in the aftermath of Cyclone Larry.
“My hope for the novel is that locals enjoy a story set within their community and readers elsewhere are drawn to visit the region,” Mr Bourke said.
“Many of my beta readers told me they’ve booked holidays to the region – curious to see this lush mysterious place for themselves,” he said.
“As a former Silkwood resident, I was taken back to my childhood growing up within a Sicilian immigrant family, bound by tradition, religion, food, and feasting. The description of the landscape, cane farming and expectations of women is picture perfect. A thoroughly entertaining read and I was gripped until the end,” said Lorna White (nee Nucifora) after reading Under Silkwood.
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