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Copyright © 2020 Tracey Friday
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication data
Tracey Friday, author.
ISBN 9780909608453 (paperback)
ISBN 9780909608972 (ebook)
Printed in Australia
Cover design by Tracey Friday and Elly Cridland
Typesetting by Elly Cridland
Cover image/photo credit:
Cara of Fast Horse Photography
Facebook.com/Fasthorsephotography
BE PUBLISHED
Publish through a successful publisher. National Distribution through Woodslane Pty Ltd
International Distribution to the United Kingdom, North America Sales Representation to South East Asia
Email: [email protected]
Dedication
To my wonderful family and dear friends and to anyone
who may wonder if I am writing about them
...what characteristic did you inspire?
Prologue
Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.
- Rhyme first recorded in A. E. Bray’s
Traditions of Devonshire, 1838
Maggie Harris is Thursday’s Child, and as the rhyme goes, she has travelled far. Far indeed from the English country village where she had grown up during WWII and now, after four long and often turbulent weeks at sea, she has finally arrived in Fremantle, on Monday January 5, 1959.
Ever since she was five years old she had been fascinated with the koala four-penny stamp that was given to her by the village postmaster. It became her talisman and carried her through many adversities as she pursued her dream.
The stamp had come on a letter from the postmaster’s family in Western Australia. Over the years, Maggie had been corresponding with the family at McKinnley Sheep Station and they had invited her to train as their new jillaroo.
Now, at aged twenty two, she has left the apple orchards of her home in England and is apprehensively excited and eager to begin her new life in the Australian outback.
Chapter One
It was a stifling hot morning and the humidity was already exhausting. In one more day she would be docking in her new homeland and Maggie had to remind herself that this was indeed January, when she would usually expect freezing temperatures and snow. The seasons were going to be topsy-turvy for her from now on and she thought it was bizarre that her July, previously summer, birthday would now be during midwinter.
She could feel her auburn curls already becoming a little wild from the humidity as she glanced in the small mirror on her cabin wall to try and regain some control. But, as she suspected, it was a losing battle. Maggie breathed in deeply and held her breath for a moment before exhaling slowly. To calm herself, she clutched the pendant she wore for strength and support. Inside the pendant she had secured the koala four-penny stamp that had been her sole driving force since she was a small child, and had, amazingly, led to her being where she was today.
During the long voyage, there had been ample time to reflect and analyse the tragedies that had dominated her young life. In an ideal world, she would have left those heartbreaking memories behind to start afresh in Australia, but life wasn’t that simple. To forget would mean that she would have to stop thinking about her beloved father, and she would never do that. She still missed him so much. She had been on the cusp of her eighth birthday when her father was killed, a short time after D-Day was announced in 1944 when a flying bomb was shot down in the village by anti-aircraft fire.
The bomb had tragically claimed eleven lives and more than ever Maggie had wanted her mother’s love, warmth and comfort. She could see that the other children had loving and caring mothers, so why shouldn’t she want the same? But Iris had withdrawn from Maggie and plummeted to depths where her true colours had bubbled to the surface. She cruelly rejected the child she had never wanted in the first place and Maggie had felt orphaned from that day on.
Maggie felt humiliated and embarrassed as she watched her mother alienate their friends and neighbours where Iris soon became the village nuisance through her drunken behaviour.
Without any thought or due care, Iris often left Maggie to fend for herself for days on end without any food in the house while she went on binges with her lover.
Maggie would often lie awake for hours wondering where her mother could be. When Iris did come home, often in the early hours, she would make so much noise as she stumbled about downstairs, that Maggie found it hard to sleep. More often than not, Maggie would be sleepy during school time and, as punishment, was banished to the corridor where she missed out on valuable lessons.
Apart from her lack of sleep, Maggie found that being hungry was difficult, particularly when she felt weak and sick. She was still remorseful recalling the time when she had stolen her classmates lunch because she was so famished and had been too ashamed to tell anyone. This included her beloved Grandma Harris and, as she was unwell, Maggie hadn’t wanted to burden her.
Betty, her mother’s once best friend, had noticed a change in Maggie as she was becoming much quieter and withdrawn and, try as she might, Maggie assured her that everything was alright.
Betty wasn’t quite deterred as she voiced her concerns to Dora, Maggie’s grandma, but like everyone else, they didn’t know the full extent of Maggie’s struggle.
Dora had been ostracised since Iris spitefully banned her from attending her own son’s funeral and also limited her contact with Maggie. But, when Maggie was eleven years old, she had met her after school one afternoon and felt extremely guilty that she hadn’t