Far From My Native Shore: A Collection of Australian Historical Novels

Journey through the colonies of nineteenth-century Australia with three standalone novels of love, loss, survival and redemption.

Collection includes:

One of Us Buried

In 1806, a fateful decision sends Eleanor Marling from the salons of London to a prison ship bound for New South Wales. She is put to work at the female factory of Parramatta, where the women’s only hope of food and lodgings is to offer their bodies to the settlement’s men.

Nell is given shelter by Lieutenant Blackwell, a brooding soldier to whom she is inexplicably drawn. Despite warnings from the other women, Blackwell’s motives seem decent, and beneath the roof of a military officer, Nell sees a chance to become more than just a convict woman sent to the factory to be forgotten.

But tensions are high in New South Wales, with the young colony teetering on the edge of a convict rebellion. And as Nell treads a dangerous line between obedience and power, she learns the role of a factory lass is to remain silent – or face a walk to the gallows.

Forgotten Places

Van Diemen's Land, Australia. 1833.

English settler Grace Ashwell flees an abusive lover in Hobart Town, with six-year-old Violet in tow. In her head, escape is easy: find work in the northern settlements and earn enough for passage home to London. But the terrain beyond the settled districts is wilder than Grace could ever have imagined. She and Violet find themselves lost in a beautiful but deadly land where rain thunders down mountains, the earth drops away without warning and night brings impenetrable darkness.

Deep in the wilderness, they find a crude hut inhabited by Alexander Dalton, an escaped convict long presumed dead. Hiding from civilisation in an attempt to forget his horrifying past, Alexander struggles to let Grace into his world.

When Violet disappears, Grace's fragile trust in Alexander is put to the test. And while she searches for answers, he will do anything to keep his secrets inside.

Inspired by the true story of the Macquarie Harbour bolters; one of the most horrifying events from Colonial Australia's bloody history.

Playing the Ghost

Australia, 1857.

Life is brutal on the goldfields of Castlemaine. With death around every corner, people are all too willing to believe in ghosts, and embrace the spiritualism movement finding its way across the seas.

For Lucy Earnshaw and her husband Tom, their arrival in Australia is marred by unimaginable grief. In the wake of her loss, and a failing marriage, Lucy is drawn into a world of spiritualism and theatre – and into the path of dashing young playwright, Will Browning.

Lucy’s new obsession leads her into the dark underbelly of the goldfields, a place where murder and thieving is rife, and no one can be trusted. And as she seeks happiness on the fringe of society, she finds herself entangled in a web of lies and corruption – one she may never escape from.