By 1848
famine has ravaged Ireland, and London remains undecided about what to do. A
shortage of female labour in Australia offers a kind of solution and so, over
the following two years more than 4000 Irish girls are shipped across vast
oceans to an unimaginable world in the new colony. Only Sunday 28 October 1849,
one of these ships, the Thomas Arbuthnot, sets sail from Plymouth with a cargo
of girls under the care of Surgeon-superintendent Charles Strutt.
Not the
Same Sky tells the story of Honora, Julie, Bridget and Anne. It observes them
on the voyage, examining their relationship of trust with Charles Strutt, and
follows them from Sydney as they become women of Australia, negotiating their
new lives as best they can. A stark, poetic intensity gives these young women
historical importance and human presence in an elegant and subtle novel
suffused with humour.
There were those who
disagreed of course, stating that by the mid 1800s they had largely improved
the route to Australia and the conditions in which free immigrants
travelled.
Our conversation led
to the potato famine and the mass exodus from Ireland. Well read as our group
is, everyone was aware of this tragic event, but some of us did not realise
these young women were brought out to help fill the shortage of female labour
in a new and developing Australia.
Ethical or not, these
girls faced a frightening and unfamiliar future and most of our group felt the
author did an admirable job of mixing fact with fiction, even if the characters
lacked a certain amount of essence.
If Australian history
is your thing, you will enjoy this novel from a knowledgeable, yet very
readable author.
