The COLONISTS

WILLIAM
STUART LONG

The sixth title in William Stuart Long's magnificent series, The Australians, continues the story of the pioneers who carved out a life for themselves in the rough and violent colony of New South Wales.
   The Colonists opens in 1823 and covers the administration of two military governors - General Sir Thomas Brisbane and General Ralph Darling. Neither of them can succeed in reconciling the two bitterly opposing factions in the young colony: the officials and free settlers and the emancipated convicts and their progeny. Darling's severity and the appalling conditions in the penal settlements of Norfolk Island and Moreton Bay spark off a fierce newspaper campaign against him when they are brought to light; a campaign waged by William Charles Wentworth.
   The new colonists, men with means, have large land grants bestowed on them in accordance with Colonial Office policy, which engenders resentment amongst elitists and emancipists alike. One of the new generation of 'privileged and favoured' is Robert Willoughby, the disgraced and disinherited son of a British admiral who, from the moment he rapes a pretty young convict girl. Alice Fairweather, within hours of boarding the ship to Sydney, seems set to add fuel to the flames.