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Now that William Thornhill has his two servants living on Thornhill's point, he starts to feel more comfortable with leaving to Sydney more often. As the family build themselves a fireplace all seems to be going well with the children flourishing (Johnny going on 2, Dick turned 7, Bub being 5.) The business was successful, everything was going very well. As William travelled more and more, he decided that he would buy Sal a gift after trip. One day as he was coming back from one of his trips, as he was admiring his land and his family up on the point, Willie came running down to meet his father. Willie was out of breath and Thornhill immediately knew that the aboriginals had come. When he goes to his house and finds out that his thought was indeed true, he decided that he had to go and talk to them. When he arrived at the aboriginals' campsite from following the trail of smoke from their campfire, he is shocked at the scene that is in front of him. The scene is set with women preparing food around the campfire 'almost naked', as William has never seen a woman fully naked he is shocked and slightly horrified. He tries to communicate to them that they have to leave his land, however due to the language barrier of neither being able to speak the other's language simple gibberish is conversed back and forth. He tries to present himself as a more dominant figure in the scene when a group of aboriginal men appear behind him, they all carry spears and Thornhill admits that he is scared of them enough to want his gun just to scare them off. He tries to sign to them and draw an image in the ground of him trying to express that Thornhill's point is his and only his, but the Indigenous Australians seem to have trouble understanding him. Once they realise he is not looking for a fight, one pulls some roots out of the ground and offers some to Thornhill - to which he declines - and a sort of peace is formed between them. So much so that when the women in the tribe would walk past William's house they got into the habit of singing. Sal and the women had begun to grow a bond where Sal was comfortable enough to talk to them and share parts of her life with them as they shared parts of their lives with her. They traded Sal's bonnet and sugar for a wooden bowl, and as readers start to think Sal's is starting to warm up to New South Wales, she tells Thornhill that they will get a very good profit if they sell the bowl in Sydney. Dan and Ned are very judgemental toward the aboriginals, which seems to have not changed since the beginning. Sal starts to get concerned that the Indigenous campers have not left, so sends Thornhill to go speak to and get advice from Blackwood. Blackwood spoke of his encounter with the aboriginals when he first moved, and simply said that he had given one of them his hat and all was settled, but Blackwood's boundaries were made very clear. When Thornhill returns to his home he is disturbed to see Dick playing amongst the aboriginals naked alongside and in the river. He goes down to try to convince Dick to return back home, but finds that Dick is far more interested in learning how to make a fire from Long Bob the traditional way. When Long Bob amazes all the children and William, Thornhill decides to introduce himself properly for the first time, and when Long Bob imitates him, he is taken a back and realised that they are the same people that merely look different.

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Dick gets beaten for hanging out with the natives. Thornhill feels guilty after. Sal is telling the kids about London and how they survived but this upsets Thornhill as it shows sals desire to go back to London. Thornhill can't kill a kangaroo so he trades some flour to the natives for some kangaroo leg. Thornhill begins to appreciate the natives way of living. Thornhill gets closer to the aboriginals. Thornhill visits smasher Sullivan, who he dislikes very much, and they have an encounter with an aboriginal. Sullivan then shouts at Thornhill comparing him to Blackwood because they both are friendly to 'the blacks'. Thornhill warns him and threatens to not get his oysters which is what Sullivan relies on.

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Questions
Why to the natives make fun of the Thornhills?

Why is the corn so precious to the aboriginals?

Why do you think sal treats Dan so badly even though they were such good friends back in london?

What do you think - on page 222 - does WT say, "Pretty soon there won't be any of you black buggers."

Does Thornhill's attitude throughout the text?

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Kangaroo -  how WT is forced to work with the aborigines to get what he wants.

Gun- Protection for the aboriginals.

Blackwood- Friendly with locals and settlers.

Smasher Sullivan - Violent way of living with the aborigines
Spear- fear/violence/stories he has heard.

Fire- Indigenous.

Bonnet- how the aboriginals are mocking the Thornhills.

The River-  his life,  how he provides for his family and his escape from poverty/freedom.

Corn- colonisation.

Thornhills Point- his dreams.

His boots- How his social and economic status improves.

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William Thornhill is one of many that were convicted of a crime and sent to Australia to colonise. There was also a common division of class which we see in the book, this was common during the Georgian era.

We also see that Williams interactions with the aboriginals is similar to the history of Australia as people were often violent and racist towards them. They are upset about the corn because its the 'blacks' source of food, this is another example of the tension between the aboriginals and the colonisers.

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Class difference in Australia was very prominent during the 18th century. Throughout these pages, however more focussed toward the first couple pages, this topic was explored. The English - Thornhill - family had always seen themselves in a higher position than the aboriginals, this is also true for most of the foreign convicts. The indigenous Australians are often referred to as "savages' and "wild". This stresses this recurring.
Domestic violence to children, although I cannot find a lot on domestic violence during this time and whether or not it was a common occurrence. I would assume that from the interaction between Thornhill and his child and how conflicted and reluctant to belt his child. My guess is that it depends on the family and the given situation.
What food was available during the 1780's (colonisation)? - the initial food that was available was simple bread, corn and a sort of porridge. However after they had settled more they would farm more fruit and vegetable and eat more animals that are native in Australia.

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Sentence: It's like bleeding flies, ain't it, he said. Kill one, ten more come to its funeral

Phrase: A nice cool night put me right.

Word: Smarmy
(ingratiating and wheedling in a way that is regarded as insincere or excessive.)

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Definitions:
Gunwale - the upper edge or planking of the side of a boat or ship.
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Sentence: "I don't want the Smasher showing his face here no more, she said. That man's going to bring down trouble on the whole lot of us. He heard a darkness in her voice. It was the sound of someone who was prepared to yield, but against the grain of what she believed in." Page 282

Phrase: The hut had become a compressed cube of fear

Word: Brittle / Distance / Uncertain

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Sentence: The anxiety and the fear had been curdling within him and turned into a fury.

Phrase: Felt his arm heavy, reluctant, but would not stop.

Word: Savages

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pg 197 - WT is clearly afraid of the natives and what they could do to his family and his land. To finally get  something worth a lot only to have it stolen from you is not nice. Role reversal of WT thieving from being thieved.
pg 209 - I think the first time WT has looked at things from the natives perspective. Possibly something that he may do more in the future.
pg 219-220 - WT goes down to the river to see his son Dick playing with the natives. The native then creates a fire from sticks and mocks William. William feels offended and refuses to be made a fool by "a naked savage"

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WT beats Dick with a belt because he was playing with the aborigines.
Later on when he sees dick attempting to start a fire with the primitive method.  He doesnt end up beating Dick but instead he helps dick they fail and WT tells Dick to go back to the aborigines (but not to tell sal).
- This could show that WT is becoming more accepting of the aborigines and he doesn't mind them as much anymore.

Since Dick has  never lived in London he is used to the aborigines and he becomes like a middle ground between WT and the aborigines.

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In part 5 of the secret river we see more of the interactions with the colonisers and the aboriginals. We see that Dicks relationship with the aboriginals grows positively with is relevant to the context as during that time though there was lots of violence there was still acts of kindness and co-existence. Modern Australia also has a percentage of Indigenous Australians with 2.8% of its population being indigenous. However, only 1% of this indigenous population believes in traditional culture.

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In this chapter we see the conflict between the colonizers and the aboriginals. We also see Dick grow closer with the aboriginals and we see how accepting they are towards him. We get to see what could have been Australia if people accepted the aboriginals.

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In part 5 of the book The Secret River by Kate Grenville, more and more aboriginals come to Thornhills point for a peace-full gathering (which he does not know of) William, his family and his servants become increasingly more scared, causing William to buy more guns and teaching Dan, Ned and Willie how to shoot them. He also goes to buy some dogs from Smasher Sullivan, who is a racist and has an aboriginal woman chained up in his hut, which he and another man have been sexually abusing. When a bunch of the people living along the Hawksburry come to Thornhills point for a meeting Smasher pulls out a pair of ears that he cut off from an aboriginals head. Thornhill looses his cool and punches Smasher knocking out his last front teeth.
Sal suggests that they either move back to London or to one of the small towns along the river, William refuses and they decide to stay in their hut.
p247-p283

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We learn about how badly the colonisers treat the aboriginals. Though Smasher and Sagitty's actions toward the aboriginals

Readers learn about the human truth of backstabbing, because we thought that William Thornhill

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287-323
This part of the novel is extremely thrilling (the climax). It initiates with William heading down the river to an aboriginal campsite. He arrives to find them all dead with vomit and green slime caked around their mouths. He realises that Smasher Sullivan went through with his plan to poison them with the green powder. He finds a boy that is barley living so he gives him some water to try and help but he pukes it back out instantly. He decides there is nothing he can do to save him. The next morning the natives steal his corn so he has a scrap with the woman picking his corn and takes a shot at Long Jack. Then they burn his corn the next day. Then he finds out that they killed Saggity so the group of emancipists mourn his death for a bit and drink for a night and decide as a group to attack the aboriginals the next day. They go to attack the camp next to Blackwood. Smasher whips Blackwood when he tries to stop them and then he gets speared by Whisker Harry and dies. Thornhill shoots Whisker Harry.

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For part 6 of the Secret river we explore the actions of the settlers. This is explored when william goes down the river and he finds a lot of dead aboriginals, including one boy who is still alive and vomiting green (from the powder). After this in the morning the aboriginals try to steal williams corn, so he fights some of the women and he shoots his gun at long jack, after this he tells that it felt good and he wants to do it again.

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This last part of the book is a flash forward 10 years into the future. Thornhill is now a very righteous man in Sydney and lives in a new

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Sentence: He had lost something that he had never known to value until it was gone.

Phrase: A hundred of the buggers could not cut you off here

Word: Newcomers

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Tucker means food. A lot of the flowers are imported and not local.

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How does Grenville use setting to reflect the Thornhills emotions? (talk about flowers)

To what extent are Thornhills decisions reasonable?

How do you think Thornhill feels about Long Jack finally saying that Sydney was his home? Is there any evidence of this and how does this impact both of them?

What does Thornhill lying about his past imply?

Is Thornhill happy? evidence