Portrait with background

It would be difficult to find a more appealing pioneer heroine than Georgiana Malloy. With her husband, Captain Malloy, she was one of a small party which founded the tiny settlement of Augusta in Western Australia. Here, as a young bride thrust suddenly form a sheltered Scottish home into a strange, isolated settlement on the opposite side of the world, she was presented with seemingly overwhelming trials and hardship. Her first baby was born in the open, many miles from the nearest doctor; she had to defend herself and her child from Aborigines who threatened to kill them; to endure a succession of frustrations and disappointments which eventually brought about the abandonment of Augusta, and a move to better land near the River Vasse, where the now famous homes of Cattle Chosen and Fair Lawn were built. Yet this attractive and intelligent woman was never defeated by circumstance, never ceased to find enjoyment and satisfaction in her life, and somehow found time among all the trials and difficulties of a pioneer settlement to study and identify for the first time many of the Western Australian wild flowers. Dame Alexandra Hasluck has been fortunate in having access to original family papers and journals - in particular Georgianna's own letters - and as a result has been able to produce a most detailed and authentic picture of early settlement in Western Australia, and a charming portrait.