Then Tina met Will by Cheryl Williss
Wakefield Press, 2020. ISBN: 9781743057612.
(Age: Senior secondary / Adult) Recommended. Non-fiction. A sixth
generation Australian, Cheryl Willis has thoroughly researched the
history of her ancestors, struggling young families who sought
escape from famine, poverty and the often desperate circumstances of
their lives in the UK, France and Germany, launching on a perilous
journey to seek a new and better life on the other side of the
world. They were long journeys on ships, with people huddled in
cramped conditions, and many, including children, losing their lives
at sea. But all were seized by the hope to make a new future.
The first stories, from the 1800s, reveal the hardships of the
times, hard labouring jobs, illiteracy, women with one pregnancy
after another, high infant mortality rates, disease and early death.
But the families made a go of it, clearing land, establishing farms,
building businesses, taking up opportunities that would never have
been available to them in their home countries.
Among the stories is that of the English lace workers, refugees from
Calais, France, shipped to South Australia, welcomed and provided
with assistance to start a new life as mechanics and unskilled
labourers. Some were able to join in the rush to the gold fields of
Victoria.
Senior secondary students studying early Australian history will be
interested in the original accounts of the mining industry in Broken
Hill, the harsh conditions, with lead poisoning, physical injury and
high death rates, leading to unionism and the fight for workers'
rights. Also of interest is the account of the conscription debate
during World War I, with excerpts from local newspapers putting
different views.
Williss' family history research has value for all who have an
interest in the early settlers in South Australia and New South
Wales, each section of the family tree a story in its own. For
history students, it is an excellent example of the use of primary
sources to build a picture of the past. And for the general reader
it is a timely reminder that the settlement of Australia has a long
history of people venturing their lives on dangerous boat journeys
to build a new future.
Helen Eddy