Summary:

Very soon they realise that the land is inhabited by the Aboriginals but Thornhill decides that he’ll
stay here and make this his land. With the constant visits from Blackwood and a character called
Smasher, the family doesn’t feel that alone under aboriginal people. Smasher is very racist. White
Neighbors living close to the Thornhills are Sagitty (who is also racist) and Mrs Herring (who is a
peaceful woman).
After months, the family gets two convict servants assigned to them (Ned and Dan). Because they’re
in conflicts with the natives so much they start giving the natives english names. Whiskers Harry,
who is a chief and Long Bob. They use the system of “give a little, take a little” introduced to them by
Blackwood to keep peace amoung the Natives.
As the time passes on tensions build up which result in a big massacre. The whites attack the
aboriginals with guns and kill the majority of them… The cause for this attack was, that the natives
killed Sagitty and wanted their land back.
The story ends with a 10 year time jump, where Thornhill is treated like a king and very rich but lives
with the guilt from that massacre.

Culture Clashes between the whites:

There aren’t just cultural clashes between the white population and the Aboriginal population In the
story but there are also Cultural clashes between The white people themselves.
As seen on the blackboard. The people on the left side. Are the white people.

ThornHill grew up Very poor And had to work for Upper class people To make a living. During this
time He is confronted with Many situations that he can’t fully understand as someone From the
lower class. To be a little specific: He sees the Gentry people As not human Because of the way they
talk and present themselves Isn’t how Thornhill Grew up.
When it comes to white people’s culuture clashes It is a matter of In which class you are in this
society. Rich people are considered to be more smart and educated. Poor people like Thornhill are
people who work for them and are less educated just as Thornhill who Didn’t know how to read or
write before his wife Sal taught him. As seen throughout the book the white people have All in all
the same values: power and wealth, because they live in a system where this is really important.
Historical context:

The book is set during the British settlement of Australia.

During the time of 1778 and 1823, New South Wales, where the story takes place, was a penal
colony of England. It was the first British colony in Australia in 1788. This meant that England sent
convicts to settle its new colony. Australia was discovered by James Cook. Of course the land wasn’t
free land. Aboriginal people were already living there for many many years.

After the American War of Independence, Britain was faced with overcrowded prisons. They had no
place to transport their convicts. The first settlement was led by Governor Arthur Philip which
consisted of about 800 convicts. It was in Sydney Cove in Port Jackson, also known as Sydney
Harbour. Sydney is the place where Thornhill and his family arrive at.

By establishing this colony Britain was very smart. These prisoners/convicts landed at a place where
they were not imprisoned and could build a new life, after serving their sentence.
Just like in our book with Thornhill being a convict servant, many convicts were assigned to free
English people. The purpose of this colony was to build a town for more and more people to come.

One problem was, that the wildlife was completely unknown for the prisoners. They had no skills on
how to get their own food. They had little knowledge in agriculture.

The Aboriginal people and the white people soon encountered on non-violent and also violent
levels. Understanding each other wasn’t easy because they had different languages. Britain of course
wanted to expand their land and this meant taking land away from the Aboriginal people.
The Europeans also brought with themselves unknown diseases that killed many aboriginal people.

In the colony there was a ticket system. This ticket system was of big importance for the convicts
because it meant freedom. “The ticket of leave” was a legal document that would be given to
convicts after their master or mistress allowed it to them and that then meant that they were free.
To Thornhill it was given to him after a year and then he started to build a life for his family.

The story is set in “The Rum Corps”

Rum is a liquor that arrived in Australia with the first people in 1788. No surprise that rum became
very important because the colony was founded by navy men that came with a navy traditional
drink. In early days Rum was imported from India but then it was manufactured and imported locally
and soon used as a currency. The problem with rum as a currency was that many workers were paid
in rum and, instead of using it to buy the goods and services they needed, they drank it.

The colony had a new governor in 1806 (around the time the Thornhill family arrived). When he
arrived, he prohibited the use of rum as payment. With doing this he made enemies.
For the first and last time in Australian history, the colony faced a military coup in 1808 in order to
depose this new Governor. They arrested him and until 1810 there was a military regime in New
South Wales.

The Hawkesbury River is a very central place in the book. It’s the place, where Thornhill and his
family started a new life and claimed that they “owned the land”. The Hawkesbury was already
inhabited by the Dharug people also known as “the broken bay tribe”. 90% of The Dharug people
were wiped out primarily because of the disease Smallpox introduced by British settlers and because
of the violent encounters. The Hawkesbury was primarily settled because of the excellent quality of
soil and water supply in the form of the Hawkesbury River. The river provided a link between the
settlements, establishing a means of transport by boat and vital communications with Sydney.
Attitudes towards the events shown:

1. The first event is: Thornhill and his family arrive in Hawkesbury and are settling in. Two black
men are watching them and come towards them holding spears. Thornhill gets scared and
tells them to not spear him. The two aboriginal men begin to speak in their native language.
Thornhill listens but doesn’t understand anything and eventually gets angry and starts to be
loud and gestures them that this land belongs to him now and they can have the rest.

The writer purposely makes the first white-aboriginal encounter a non-violent one. By doing this she
showed us that Aboriginals aren’t violent which is exactly the opposite image the english people had
back then. The two cultures don’t understand each other. In this and also future events, Thornhill
tries to be loud and talk to the aboriginals like the rich people from London spoke to poor people. By
doing this it shows his superiority towards aboriginals and he tries to make the Aboriginals feel
inferior.

2. The next event is between Thornhill and Blackwood. Thornhill is seeking advice from
Blackwood on how to make the Aboriginals go away. Blackwood tells him that once he was
told by aboriginals to leave. To not leave, he gave them food and eventually also his hat. The
advice he gives him here is to “give a little, take a little” In this scene it is revealed that
Blackwood has an aboriginal girlfriend and speaks their native language.

The author wants the show us that love relationships were common and not just hate relationships
existed. Blackwood’s character is written to show that there can be successful understandings
between the english and the natives. They can live together and try to understand and accept each
other without violence… but of course Thornhill doesn’t get the message.

3. Another event is the son Dick and his relationship with the natives. Dick is the son that
wasn’t born in London. He has no image or understanding of what London is, for him it’s just
a word. His home is Australia.

Thornhill finds his son trying to make fire like the aboriginal Long Jack showed him. Instead of getting
angry and beating him for communicating with natives (like he did before), he tries to do the same
as his son. They sadly don’t succeed but Thornhill tells his son to ask Long Jack to show him again.

The attitude of this event is very positive. Throughout the book we see the family not wanting to do
anything with the natives and they’re always seen as two different sides. With Dick now being the
one in the family in a way communicating with natives, he breaks the rules but his dad lets him
break the rules because he shows that he values his son more than his culture. It is clear that since
Dick was born in New South Wales and in a completely different environment he will have different
values than the others.
 4. The last event is the most heartbreaking one. In the story Sagitty gets killed by the
Aboriginals. This leads to the biggest conflict in the story. Smasher convinces the other white
characters and Thornhill to plan an attack and finally get rid of Aboriginals. It’s about either
fighting or returning to their old lives. They decide to attack them at dawn. The attack ends
with being a massacre and many aboriginals get killed but also Smasher dies, deserved.
During the massacre Thornhill never shoots anyone with his gun but he was there and led it
happen.

The attitude towards this event is very mixed. It is supposed to make you have mixed feelings. The
hate the reader should feel towards the white people increases heavily and the Aboriginals are
portrayed as the weak victims. Thornhill’s position in this massacre is very weird. He agrees to it
becausse he doesnt want to loose his land but when he is there, he’s incapable of shooting anyone
or doing anything. This is supposed to make the reader have empathy or still think that he might be
a good person but not doing anything is also doing something.

The only aboriginal mentioned in the book after this events is Long Jack. 10 years have passed and
Thornhill lives the life he wanted as a rich man. Long Jack still lives amoung them and gets offered
food and clothes but refuses to accept it from them.
During this event we see Sal and Thornhill trying to find inner peace by being kind to Long Jack and
telling themselves, that they’re good people and doing something good for aboriginal people. Guilt
and remorse are consequences Thornhill faces even 10 years after this massacre.

By only having Jack as the only aboriginal in the end of the story, the life of aboriginals in
Hawkesbury is completely being dismissed showing the brutal reality of history..