Why a Booktrail?
19th Century – Following on from the Secret River and The Lieutenant, this is the third and final installment of Kate Grenville’s trilogy of colonial Australia
Sarah Thornhill
What you need to know before your trail
This is the Australia of The Secret River. The story of Sarah and Jack who have never doubted their love for one another. But not everyone in Sarah’s family is happy with the relationship – the reason lies in both the past and the present and will take Sarah on the journey of her life.
Sarah is the youngest child of William Thornhill, the pioneer at the center of “The Secret River.” Her father is actually an uneducated ex-convict from London and unbeknownst to her has built his fortune on the blood of Aboriginal people. He has become rich and respectable at the expense of so many others.
But Sarah and her legacy remain. And she must try to overcome this ugly secret in her family’s past if she is to move on.
Locations
ResetTravel Guide
In the Australia of the frontier lands and the dawn of the 19th century in New South Wales, life is hard and harsh. Sarah Thornhill’s past and legacy weigh heavily upon her and her future life.
This secret is that her father took part in a massacre of local indigenous people near their settlement on the Hawkesbury River. This is an area of immense beauty which hides the pain the people there must have felt. When Sarah falls in love with a boy with a white father and indigenous mother, her secret, although hidden at first will shatter everything she knows.
“The Hawkesbury was a lovely river, wide and calm, the water dimply green…”
“They called us the Colony of New South Wales, I never liked that. We weren’t new anything. We was ourselves”
The story is set against the backdrop of a difficult and tumultuous part of Australian history. When tensions between white settlers and indigenous peoples were high. This colonial times were harsh and unrelenting and are evoked here in shocking detail –
“New South Wales was by all accounts a rough place. Not much between a man and starvation and not too many women other than native ones. A man did what was natural.”
The Hunter Valley
When Sarah moves to the frontier , this is the area around the upper Hunter Valley where many people emigrated to and settled. The difficult life conditions are haunting
Life on the frontier town is harsh and lonely. Monotonous in the extreme with little food or supplies and a long way to get help if needed.
Australia’s history and legacy is also Sarah Thornhill’s
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information:
Web: kategrenville.com
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