Young Toby Malone

All Australians will easily identify with the initial setting of this book, the location of Botany Bay and Captain James Cook being on board the Endeavour. The book begins with Cooks discovery, his claiming and subsequent skirmish with the local indigenous people, who were at his landing site. These recorded facts are ongoing indigenous rights issues. The book continues with Cooks return to England, the recording of Cooks journey, altered to suit the state of affairs, then the delay and planning for the First Fleet to return to Australia, named New South Wales. The introduced fictional character, Lucy, is a young woman unjustly imprisoned for a crime she did not commit. Lucy is sent as part of the First Fleet, as a convict, deported forever. She establishes a relationship, with an officer on board Phillips ship during the journey. Upon arrival at Sydney Cove, within a month, she delivers a baby boy, Toby Malone. He is the first born on these new lands. The hardships and almost failure of the new colony, at Sydney Cove, increases the already known drama surrounding Australia’s early history.

As Australians, we acknowledge our early settlers, those who were sent as convicts, those who came in other circumstances. This fictional account creates unknowns of who were some of our ancestors and from what place in society did these originate from.