The Battle For Colleen Mccullough's Fortune

She was a best-selling author who was larger than life, yet even in death Colleen McCullough is having the last laugh. As Sue Smethurst reports, the battle between her husband and a university over her will is set to be one hell of a story.

- Sue Smethurst

It is arguably one of the most memorable scenes in Australian literature, when the cunning widow Mary Carson reveals to handsome priest Father Ralph de Bricassart that she has secretly crafted a second will that forever changes the lives and fortunes of those living on the Outback cattle station, Drogheda.

The Machiavellian masterstroke was one of many page-turning twists in the plot of Colleen McCullough’s novel The Thorn Birds, the biggest selling book in Australian history.

The characters of the sweeping family saga, which sold a staggering 33 million copies worldwide, were inspired by Colleen’s own life. The itinerant workers followed the nomadic Outback existence of her parents and the tragic drowning of a precious son mirrored the demise of Colleen’s much-loved brother, Carl.

Now, two years after her death, an intriguing chapter is being written in the life of Colleen McCullough and it reads as if straight from the pages of her most famous and dramatic story.

In a case of life imitating art, it’s been revealed that like her protagonist Mary Carson, Colleen also left a second will, shunning her husband of 30 years Ric Robinson, and giving her multi-million dollar estate to an American university.

And it’s now the subject of a bitter court battle which has all the makings of a best-seller.

“Col knew exactly what she was doing all the time,” says her long-time publisher at Harper Collins and friend, Shona Martyn.

“In her final years, although her body was letting her down, her mind was as sharp as ever and she continued to write until the end. As much as she’d hate having her personal life raked over the coals, she’d have known something like this would become public – I think she’s having the last laugh.”

A second will appears