Set in the years 1896-1914, this book begins in the Coffee Palace in Berrigan, NSW, which opened in time for the arrival of the railway in that town. Within the story of the family that built the Berrigan Coffee Palace, various stories emerge - of the family in Tasmania, and its musicians who have become part of the cultural scene for Australian rural towns; of a shipwreck of the 'Helen' in the Cork harbour; of Chartist men and a clockmaker in England; and through it all, a snapshot of daily life in the Riverina town in the years leading to Federation .
