The lives of C. Y. O'Connor and Henry Calvert Barnett crossed in Fremantle during the heady days of the Coolgardie-Kalgoorlie gold rush. One, the engineer O'Connor, built a world-class harbour at Fremantle, defying the doubters who said it couldn't be done. The other, Dr Barnett, did his best to run an asylum that was constantly underfunded and stretched to its limits.

As the obsession with progress and prosperity in the society around them sometimes bordered on insanity, the two men would both pay the ultimate price.

This carefully researched and fully referenced non-fiction book is about 300 pages in length. It will appeal to lovers of biographical history, especially those with an interest in the history of Fremantle and Western Australia.