Mike and his grandparents have come to Uncle John’s farm to dig a new dam and build a better road to the river. But it is raining up in the high country, and day by day the river rises – until it threatens to flood the farm.
Will the levee banks hold?
Another exciting adventure for Mike and his earthmoving machines now available from Wattle Bay Books
Reviews of Mike’s Bulldozer and the Big Flood
‘her text is … warm yet informative, with a gentle underlying humour which appeals so much to children. But her illustrations are so realistic that bulldozers and bobcats almost leap from the pages.’ Margaret Clark, Geelong Advertiser
‘Mike’s Birthday Bulldozer has been loved and remembered by small machinery buffs ever since it was first published. They will be overjoyed to discover this accomplished sequel.’ Margaret Dunkle, The New Librarian
Background to Mike’s Bulldozer and the Big Flood
I grew up on an irrigation farm at Beverford, near Swan Hill. The farm was protected by a very big levee bank along the Murray River, so that the memory of the threat of flood has always stayed with me. However, this book is based mainly on the 1974 Goulburn River flood that inundated our friends’ orchard and flooded their house.
Mike’s Bulldozer and the Big Flood is set on John and Dorothy Clements’ farm at Toolamba near Shepparton. The Clements grow peaches, pears, apples, nashis, apricots and nectarines, as well as running cattle on the Goulburn river flats. When I asked John and Dorothy if I could use the location for the book, I said, “I hope you don’t have any floods while I’m doing the drawings or I’ll feel responsible for them!” During the two years it took to illustrate the book, floods threatened the farm three times. Before that, the last serious flood was in 1974.
The flood which reached its peak at Clements’ farm on the 21st. and 22nd. of September, 1993 was a case of life echoing art. With the Clements’ permission, I am reproducing the letter that they wrote to the Shepparton News, and which appeared on the 24th. of September.
“As you drive into Toolamba, have you noticed the signs at either end, “Little Town – Big Heart”? Believe us, it is true.
Last Tuesday, 21st September, our orchard was in serious danger of being flooded. We had two excavators working reinforcing and building up banks; had sand and empty bags. We made about 20 phone calls requesting help and about 60 people arrived. After we rang one person, they would contact another and the message snowballed. 1500 sand bags were filled and ready for use in a couple of hours. About 200 bags were used in the afternoon keeping water out of the orchard.
About 10 p.m. one of the banks started to weaken and we again needed help. The only way to tackle the problem was to form a human chain to pass sand bags from the dry end along the bank to where the area was weak. More walking on the bank would have weakened it further. On to the phone again. Farming communities do not keep late hours. Most contacted were in bed asleep or well on the way, but the most common response was “Where do you want me” or “How do I get there?” By about 12.30 a.m. the battle was won. About 60-80 people had come out in the cold and mud to help.
To everyone a very sincere thank you. To the two excavator drivers, the Toolamba Fire Brigade members, our own employees, the Rodney S.E.S. and the many residents of the Town with the Big Heart Thank You All.
John and Dorothy Clement.”
I hope that this book will appeal to a wide range of children, including ‘outside’ children who don’t read much. Although A Nice Walk in the Jungle is the most popular book I have written, I get the most feedback from parents about Mike’s Birthday Bulldozer: … “he kept it under the pillow” … “it fell to pieces in the end” … “I read it to them twice a day for ages” … “we got it out of the library so often that the librarian said we couldn’t have it any more” ….
I hope that Mike’s Bulldozer and the Big Flood has the same effect on children. I hope that it gives city children some understanding of farm life, and also fills the gap that exists in the availability of books that have relevance for farm children.
I hope that farm families will
recognize that it is a celebration of the co-operation that is found in close
knit communities in the country; communities that have been in danger of
disintegrating under the burden of long economic recession and severe drought. Nan
Bodsworth, 1996
Mike’s Bulldozer and the Big Flood is a sequel to Mike’s Birthday Bulldozer
My youngest son Mike was passionately interested in bulldozers and trucks when he was young. All we could find in the library was Mike Mulligan’s Steam Shovel, so I developed the story of Mike’s bulldozer, which eventually was published when he was eleven. It was at this time that I started putting real people in my books, and testing my manuscripts in schools. Mike’s Birthday Bulldozer was in print for 32 years and now has also been republished in a handsome new edition by Wattle Bay Books. http://wattlebaybooks.com The feedback has been wonderful!
Information about the illustrations for Mike’s Bulldozer and the Big Flood
The illustrations for Mike’s Bulldozer and the Big Flood are painted with Windsor and Newton Series 3A paintbrushes, and Rottring acrylic watercolours, which are the most difficult paints that I have used, as they do not allow for any mistakes. The fine brown and black lines are drawn with Rottring Art Pen Graph drawing pens with superfine nibs, using waterproof drawing inks, so that the ink will not bleed through the colour, which is applied later. The best black ink I’ve found is FW Non-clogging Waterproof Drawing Ink. The brown ink I mixed myself.
I worked for a year on the roughs for the drawings, as this was the stage where I had to include all the details of all the machines, and work out the perspective, and all the relative sizes. I had taken photos of most of the people and machines as well as general views around the Clements’ farm.
I have always taken photos as reference for my book illustrations because they provide odd and authentic details such as scuffed shoes, bent exhaust pipes, worn tyres and scruffy haircuts. And real people like being in books.
I took photos of construction sites around Geelong, and the people are mainly from the Geelong district or Toolamba near Shepparton. I used real details, machinery and scenes from the Clement farm as much as I could. My family is there in various guises as well. Most of the number plates are children’s birthdays. It took me two years to complete the illustrations.
Launch of Mike’s Bulldozer and the Big Flood at Geelong Regional Library, 1996. Left to right: Brian & Nan Bodsworth, John & Dorothy Clement