The riddle of the Trumpalar. Title page: copyright 1981 by Trumper Park Productions. First Ashton Scholastic edition in Australia and NZ 1982. Reprinted 1982 and 1984. Reprinted as an Apple Paperback in 1990, which is the Scholastic edition I read. The 2007 edition has a bright green cover with circle illustration in the middle.
- Eleven-year-old Cass and Carl (he wears glasses) are twins. They want to save the old Moreton Bay fig tree from being cut down, beginning with a petition. The parents with neighbours have a residents' committee and consulted a lawyer. They're trying to prevent a woman with powerful sway with the council from chopping the Trumper Tree (as they call it) down. It's in the middle of Trumper Park in a noisy city. The park was becoming smaller as more townhouses were built. The twins hugged the tree to make a wish and found themselves pulled into the tree as if they had dissolved into the trunk, and were sliding down inside the tree. They landed in a round room that seemed to be made of tree roots plaited together. Cass touched the wall and it disappeared. They walked through tunnels. Cass still believed in tree spirits. Carl was practical, logical and thought there was a scientific explanation for everything. The twins meet the Trumpalar, a tall robed being that seems to speak with thoughts, and often says mayhap.
- There is bushland after the second time they went into the Trumper Tree to escape a dog.
- Time tunnel theorised. Time travel within the tree to Australian convict times.
- Soldiers talk in what I presume is a Cockney accent. "Lundun" and "baint" as examples.
- The twins went back in time again, travelling in a boat. They saw the young convict as an elderly woman.
- Penbriton's yard, something buried. ( )