Strange Objects collected in Messenger's scrapbook. Steven Messenger has several psychotic episodes and eventually kills Charlie Sunrise and a lizard in Strange Objects. The book was partly a response to Australia's Bicentenary, which occurred in 1988. This event caused a revival of interest in Australian history, particularly in the "discovery" of the land. The bicentenary celebrated the landing of the "First Fleet" in 1788, and the beginning of permanent European settlement in Australia. James Cook charted the east coast of Australia in 1770, however there were a number of sightings and landings prior to this. In "Strange Objects", Gary Crew takes the
Country Knolls, New York (North), Country Knolls South, Country Knolls West, and the earlier Clifton Knolls were built by the local Clifton Park housing development company owned by Robert Van Patten. The Country Knolls Civic Association has an excellent description of the development and growth of the original Country Knolls from its initial homes built on Hillcrest Drive, Meridian Lane, Ridge Lane, and Manor Court in 1964, to the expansion of Country Knolls into the Town of Malta, and the later addition of homes in 1988/89 on previously untouched land in the middle of Country Knolls in 1988 on the new road Huntington Parkway.