Published by CUSTOM BOOK PUBLICATIONS... Transport and the tyranny of distance was the real problem for the colony of New South Wales. Distance limited the how far wheat, the most valuable of the farm crops, could be transported but it was generally no more than thirty or forty miles. Cattle, fattened on the lush pastures of the coastal ranges, walked to market losing a little fat but the beef the small population could consume, was limited. While hides were exported back to England by the thousand, it was not a proposition to raise cattle for skins alone. Only sheep were valuable enough to show a profit - a ton of wool worth ten times that of a ton of wheat. Wool could afford the cost of transport to the ports, and across the world where growing markets, created by the woollen mills of England and Europe, had an insatiable appetite for the fleece. Flocks of sheep doubled every few years but needing huge acreages, most squatted their flocks as settlers claimed larger and larger tracts of the colony. The bullock driver brought the bales after shearing down dusty bush tracks to the Sydney merchants, sometimes hundreds of miles. Swaying from side to side, with wheels creaking, accompanied by a volley of strange oaths and the sharp crack of the stock whip, the monstrous beasts strained at their yokes with the attendant kelpies nipping their heels. Close to the near wheel walked the driver, tall and broad-shouldered - a sunburnt care-worn man with long shaggy hair covered by a grubby, wide brimmed, sweat-marked hat. A months beard covered his dusty face. Dressed in the trademark dark blue cotton shirt with sleeves rolled to the shoulders of his browned, hairy arms, coarse moleskin trousers and calf-half leather boots completed his uniform. A wizened man, more shabbily dressed in much the same gear, trotted along the off side. With three mongrel dogs chained under the back axle of the dray, another load of the golden fleece was off to market. The hard-working pioneer squatter won in time. Some even became extremely wealthy, and understandably possessive of their lands. Against the world trend, many sought to continue the transportation of convicts providing cheap labour. Failing in these endeavours, the emigrants changed the balance, supplying the lifeblood of the colony - labour. Then they found gold... This was the atmosphere emigrants arriving on the Harriet would seek their fortunes. David Campbell planned to buy a more traditional farm, and settle comfortably but for the Laytons, indentured to the Macarthur-owned Camden Park, it would be a year before they were free to find land to farm for themselves. As a British Army officer, Captain Bushby would soon lead the hated mounted troopers - the traps; Edward Cole would join his law firm as the third partner and the Broderick siblings, their ambitious, mercantile parents. The Sheather brothers - Samuel and Edward and their families, would continue in their evil ways, becoming just another part of the Rocks coterie of illicit dealers and traders. Murder and mayhem would soon follow them closely. As escapees, the once honest and hard-working brothers, William and Henry Bunch, would make an inauspicious start to their futures in Australia led by their less than scrupulous brother, Isaac. Many would follow the gold discoveries - some finding success but most would not, finally becoming traders and shopkeepers or farmers and labourers. Many women would marry - some successfully but for one or two, it would turn out to be a brutally wrong decision. One in six Britons emigrated to this new world in just thirty years - part of the greatest diaspora in human history - choosing to be new Australians.
About the Author: ABOUT THE AUTHOR... J.J. Barrie, Australian born author, published his début novel in 2009. For decades, he has maintained an interest in English family histories. The Emigrants, a planned trilogy reflects this research into migration to the colonies in the 19th century. The first volume, The Brothers Five is in its fourth edition, the second in publication and the final volume in edit. Extensively travelled, with a close knowledge of much of Europe and Asia, all his stories have a particular affinity with their locales particularly the historical crime novel featuring the Da Vinci icon - Mona Lisa: The Virgin Mother and the recently published best seller, Curse of the Diamonds