‘Perfect setting for plots’: Why Australia’s high country is a killer location

A vet returns to the town where her boyfriend disappeared – and where people think she killed him. It’s “just a story”, but there’s something particularly Australian about it.

When writers contemplate where to set a novel, we understandably consider what genre we’re writing and what level of impact we need the setting to have on the story. For example, a cosy mystery might be supported by a quaint country village setting. A holiday romance read might be set at the beach. A quirky coming of age story might take place within the grounds of a university. You get the drift.

For thriller writers, it’s not as much a question of where should the story take place – depending on the plot, it’s fine to be anywhere. No, it’s more a question of how can the setting be weaponised? Thrillers promise a high level of tension. That tension comes from how pressure on the characters is ramped up and up, until readers are left without fingernails and they don’t sleep until the book is finished. The environment that the story is set in is integral to how readers become immersed, and it needs to both provide a sense of understanding and resonance (readers know where the characters are, and what they’re seeing, feeling, smelling), as well as adding to the sense of threat.

‘Iconic place in Australia’s heart’ … Banjo Paterson (pictured on a ten-dollar note) helped bring the high country into the national imagination.

The coexistence of beauty and danger is fantastic material for writers of suspense – whether it be for novels or screenplays – and given its abundance in Australia, our country makes for the perfect setting for the widest array of thriller plots. From our hot, sparse, red interior where help is often so far away, to our tangled, impenetrable rainforests, our gritty urban landscapes, or our rugged coastlines, we have nearly everything. Happily, most of these environments also come with venomous creatures or cliffs or old mine shafts or dangerous rip-tides – deadly adornments to embellish whatever evil we’ve already got going on.

And don’t forget the climate. Drought, flood, fire, cyclone or endless calm. These can all be included to raise the stakes. Some of my favourite recent examples include Broken Bay by Margaret Hickey (who knew the horrors of South Australian sinkholes?), Retribution by Sarah Barrie (her urban building sites and train tunnels are the perfect tension tighteners), and The Whispering by Veronica Lando (that Queensland rainforest was creepy!).

Thrills on screen as well as page … forthcoming Foxtel drama-mystery High Country, starring Sara Wiseman, Leah Purcell and Aaron Pedersen, will be set in the titular area of Australia.

‘MURDER, DECEIT, REVENGE’: HIGH COUNTRY

With my latest book, The Chasm, I came up with the plot and characters first, then needed to find a setting to suit. My protagonist, Andy, is a locum vet, returning to the area of her childhood after leaving a decade ago when her boyfriend disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Andy knows the people of the town she grew up in believe that he’s dead and that she’s the likely killer, however she’ll die before she reveals what she knows about what happened back then. Unfortunately, Andy runs into the people still most invested in knowing what became of Will, and when she stumbles across their new business interests, she finds herself in their crosshairs the same way that Will once did.

Thanks to writers such as Banjo Patterson (Man from Snowy River), Elyne Mitchell (The Silver Brumby), and many others, the southeastern high country has an iconic place in Australia’s heart and culture. It’s where the landscape, the elements and adventure coincide, and it felt the perfect place to set this story.

‘A smorgasbord of absolute gold’ … Bronwyn Hall.

Narrowing it down, I picked northern Victoria for its rugged beauty, and its natural features similar to my (invented) chasm. Nestled inside the nature, are farms and towns and an authentic sense of community, where people are genuine and care for each other, and where Andy feels she belongs. Importantly, this setting also featured the pine plantations, a significant agricultural enterprise that takes up whole mountainsides. No one trespasses the deep gloom beneath those canopies, making them the perfect place to hide evil.

In short, northern Victoria offered an environment to give readers a sense of beauty and tranquillity when everything is going well, as well as an edginess and sense of danger when things aren’t. When Andy and the people who wish her dead are pitted against each other, Andy is able to weaponise that environment – working with it to outwit and outrun – turning it against her enemies who’d used it as their own weapon for so long.

As an Australian writer, I feel blessed by the setting opportunities our country offers. When it comes to finding ways to up the thriller ante, they deliver a smorgasbord of absolute gold.

‘The perfect place to hide evil’ … The Chasm.

Bronwyn Hall’s new novel, The Chasm, is out now, published by HQ Fiction.

What’s your favourite setting for a thriller? Tell us at the Sunday Book Club on Facebook.

And check out our Book Of Month: The Visitors, by Jane Harrison. You can get it for 30 per cent off the RRP with the code VISITORS at Booktopia. T & Cs: Ends 30-Sep-2023. Only on ISBN 9781460761984. Not with any other offer.

Beauty and danger ... Victoria’s high country.

Originally published as ‘Perfect setting for plots’: Why Australia’s high country is a killer location