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Both libraries are named after famous West Australians.
Katharine Susannah Prichard (1883 – 1969) is an important Australian literary figure, her talent recognised within Australia and internationally. A Mundaring local, who lived close to the library at Greenmount, Prichard was an avowed literary nationalist who supported and championed Australian literature.
” Literature should have no country. But I can’t help it. I care most for the interpretations of this place – and will, with my eyes open, barter international reputation, to give Australia as she is, or as I see it, to the world.”
[ From a private letter to Janet Palmer]
Further information on Prichard’s works can be found here.
Albert Facey (1894-1982) became a symbol for the Australian “battler” when he detailed his life story in the best seller A Fortunate Life.
Although he received no formal education, Facey describes in simple but eloquent prose his early years in Coolgardie and other parts of Western Australia. With great humanity and humour he details the hardships in his life, his experiences at Gallipoli where he was injured and his brother killed, his father’s death before he was two, his mother’s desertion, beginning work at eight years of age, and his son’s death during the fall of Singapore.
For many years Albert lived within the Shire. Jan 2006
