WORRALS DOWN UNDER
First Published in 1948 - 216 pages
Whilst in Sydney, Australia,
Worrals and Frecks accidentally meet Janet Marlow, an old friend from Hendon.
Janet has inherited a house and land from her Aunt Mary Carter, who has
recently died. Before she died, Aunt Mary sent Janet a large piece of opal,
which she had found on her land. Janet had been to the house at Wallabulla, in
the middle of nowhere, and had been scared away from the land. Janet agrees to
return with Worrals and Frecks. After flying out to the house in a Desoutter
aircraft, our heroines find three men living there. It is later discovered that
their names are 'Manila' Joe Barola, Luke Raffety and a native called Yoka.
Worrals throws them out. The following day, Worrals flies to Adelaide, some
five hundred miles away and meets Aunt Mary's old lawyer and an opal dealer
called Felix Moran who valued some of Aunt Mary's opal. Worrals soon finds out
that Barola and Raffety work for Moran. Flying on to Oodnadatta, Worrals meets
the local police officer, Dan Terry and also picks up a dog called Maginty who
was due to be put down. That night, somebody attempts to dig up Aunt Mary's
grave (she had been buried in the grounds of her house). A boomerang injures
the person doing it. The next day, Frecks and Janet fly off to Oodnadatta.
Worrals pretends to go with them, but instead hides. She sees an Aborigine
native go into the house and then Yoka try to murder him. Worrals intervenes
and a boomerang thrown by the native kills Yoka. The native is injured and
Worrals realises that he is Charlie, Aunt Mary's faithfully servant who had
previously disappeared. At Oodnadatta, Moran arrives and takes an opportunity
of driving his car into the girls' plane. He then drives off for Wallabulla
where Worrals is. Frecks spends hours repairing the plane and flies urgently
back to Worrals only to find her missing. Meanwhile, back at Wallabulla, the
dog, Maginty, drinks some water and dies an agonising death from poisoning.
Moran, Raffety and Barola confront Worrals and she pretends that the injured
Charlie is in fact dead. Raffety goes to dig up Aunt Mary's grave, with a view
to disposing of the body because it is evidence that they poisoned her. There
is no body there, the grave is a fake. Barola drinks some water without
thinking and then realises that it is poisoned. The men leave to drive Barola
to Oodnadatta for medical help but he dies on the way. Charlie runs off and
Worrals is out looking for him when Frecks returns to an empty house. Moran and
Raffety return and demand the deeds to the estate. They give the girls the
night to think about it. In the morning, they appear to have gone, but Worrals
discovers they have put sugar in her main fuel tank. They have missed the
gravity tank, however, so she can still fly. Worrals takes off, with Frecks and
Janet and then fakes a crash, burning scrubland to assist in the rouse. Janet
is then sent on to Oodnadatta to get the police whilst Worrals and Frecks
return to the house. Moran and Raffety capture Charlie and intend to murder him
because he knows too much. Frecks intervenes to save Charlie and he escapes.
Janet returns without the police but luckily Dan Terry has come out to visit in
any event. Moran and Raffety escape in their car but Worrals overtakes them with
her plane and an ambush is set on the road ahead. In the resulting shoot-out,
both Moran and Raffety are killed. With the help of Charlie, the whereabouts of
the opal is discovered and Janet goes on to marry Dan Terry after selling the
house. Worrals and Frecks return to England by sea and muse about the
reputation of opal for bringing bad luck.
Worrals Down Under
Subtitle - none
Publication Details - published by Lutterworth Press