Copyright © Jane Smith
First published 2020
Copyright remains the property of the authors and apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission.
All inquiries should be made to the publishers.
Big Sky Publishing Pty Ltd
PO Box 303, Newport, NSW 2106, Australia
Phone:1300 364 611
Fax: (61 2) 9918 2396
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.bigskypublishing.com.au
Cover design and typesetting: Think Productions
Proudly printed and bound in China by Hang Tai Printing Company Limited
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Creator: Smith, Jane Margaret, author.
Title: A New World / Jane Smith.
ISBN: 978-1-922265-07-4 (paperback).
Series: Smith, Jane Margaret. Carly Mills, Pioneer Girl ; bk 1.
This does more than acknowledge our female trailblazers. It teaches our daughters about them in a delightful and entertaining away. Gold!
Madonna King
author and journalist
CONTENTS
Chapter 1 The Shawls
Chapter 2 Mrs Chisholm
Chapter 3 The Shed
Chapter 4 The Plan
Chapter 5 Night
Chapter 6 Rats!
Chapter 7 Rise and Shine
Chapter 8 The Emigrant’s Friend
Chapter 9 The Wharf.
Chapter 10 The Female Immigrants’ Home
Chapter 11 Another Plan
Chapter 12 Bush
Chapter 13 The Farm
Chapter 14 Scared
Chapter 15 Be Strong!
Historical Note
Q & A with Caroline Chisholm
‘Are you nervous?’ Dora asked.
‘No,’ Carly replied. ‘Should I be?’
Dora tipped her head to the side and thought for a moment. ‘I suppose not,’ she said at last. ‘It’s not as if you’ll never see your home again.’
A lump swelled in Carly’s throat. She was a bit nervous, now that she thought about it. In a couple of months, she would be leaving her family’s farm at Apis Creek to go to boarding school in Brisbane. She would move far away from everything she knew – her parents, her little sister, the horses, the cattle, and the dogs – to live in the city. She had no idea what it was going to be like. She wasn’t used to cities. And she most certainly wasn’t used to being apart from her family. ‘I will miss it,’ Carly said in a small voice.
‘Of course you will,’ Dora replied with a kind, gap-toothed smile. ‘You’re a country girl. But the city’s not so bad, is it?’
Carly stopped and looked around at the harbour. She was visiting family friends in Sydney for the school holidays, as a special treat before starting high school. It was a sparkling, hot summer’s day. The Harbour Bridge formed a perfect silver arc through a blue sky, and the sun shone upon the water. Hundreds of boats – big and small – bobbed and glided about the harbour, and people bustled here and there upon the wharf.
Carly grinned. ‘No,’ she said. ‘It’s not bad at all.’ A wave of excitement suddenly washed over her. ‘OK,’ she said eagerly. ‘What next?’
‘Hmmm,’ said Dora, pushing her glasses up on her nose and peering at a guidebook. ‘What about the Botanic Gardens?’
‘... sure,’ said Carly. She wasn’t really interested in gardens, but she was just getting to know Dora and didn’t want to disappoint her. Dora and Carly’s mothers had been best friends when they were at boarding school. The girls had met once or twice before, but never spent time together without their parents. This trip to Sydney was a real adventure for Carly. It was her first time on a plane, and her first time in Sydney. Her parents had driven her to Brisbane and she had flown to Sydney by herself. She felt very grown-up. And now, here she was, in the big city without any adults!
Dora was a Sydney girl, and being in the city was no big deal for her. Carly was trying not to show how deeply the sights impressed her.
‘Great,’ Dora said, pointing. ‘Straight down this street and then left.’
Carly happily trotted along the busy street beside her. Dora was short and freckled and wore brightly-coloured and mismatched clothing: a floral shirt and green patterned skirt, with ankle boots and yellow socks. Her red hair was pulled tightly into pigtails. Carly had never met anyone like her before.
‘What’s that building?’ Carly pointed across a wide, busy courtyard.
‘That?’ Dora said, raising her eyebrows at a tall, grand sandstone building. ‘That’s Customs House. They have museum exhibitions in there. Want to have a look?’
‘Sure,’ Carly shrugged.
They walked across the courtyard and through an arched doorway into the foyer. There were people everywhere. A group of tourists was being led around by a woman with a clipboard, and men in overalls were pushing boxes around on trolleys. A woman hurried past and bumped into them.
‘Sorry,’ they all said at the same time.
‘Can I help you, girls?’ the woman asked in a tight voice, as if helping them was the last thing on earth she felt like doing.
‘Can we see the exhibition?’ Dora asked.
‘I’m sorry – not today,’ the woman replied. ‘We’re in the middle of a big clean-up. We’re changing exhibitions and moving things out.’
‘Oh,’ Dora said, disappointed. ‘Thanks anyway ...’ but the woman had already gone.
A man trundled past with a trolley full of boxes and disappeared through a door that said: ‘STAFF ONLY’.
Carly saw something flutter to the ground. ‘Hey!’ she cried, pushing her way through the crowd. There was a pile of fabric on the floor. She bent to pick it up and found two identical pieces of material. They were triangular and edged with lace. The fabric was soft, delicate and a faded orange colour – perhaps yellowed with age.
‘Shawls!’ Carly said. She looked around for someone to hand them to. The only people she could see were tourists.
‘Let me see,’ said Dora, squinting at the fabric. ‘They look old.’
Another man with a trolley pushed through the staff door.
‘Excuse me,’ Carly said to him, ‘someone dropped these.’
‘Those old things?’ the man said, barely looking at the shawls in her hand. ‘Probably getting rid of them anyway. Keep ‘em, if you like.’
Dora and Carly looked at each other. The man
