The Gilpins, A Story of Early Days in Australia, by William H G
Kingston.
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The story opens with a couple of school-leavers discussing what they
will do with their lives. One of the boys, a Gilpin, whose father is a
hard-working farmer, is determined to go along the same route, but in
Australia, as he and his brother have often dreamt of doing.
They reach Australia, and an incident on the Quay in Sydney, where they
save a family from destruction in a carriage whose horses have bolted,
makes them valuable friends, leading to an appointment as managers, or
overseers, of a cattle and sheep station somewhere out beyond the Blue
Mountains. The previous manager had let the place get run down, and was
actually rather a crook. Some of the other workers on the station were
as idle and crooked as he. Not surprising as most of them had been sent
to Australia for some offence in England. A few of the men were decent
enough. There is such resentment among the idle men that they prevail
upon some aborigines to attack the buildings and set them on fire, a
plan which is foiled by one of the better workers.
Eventually the great Australian bubble bursts (the Australian economy is
always a bit overheated) and the Gilpins are ordered to slaughter the
cattle and sheep. They discover a source of salt on the station, so
they are able to salt down some of the meat, which was otherwise going
to waste.
Using the opportunity of buying valuable stock cheaply, they acquire the
station and start the business again. They rescue a drowning man, only
to find he is the other schoolboy in the conversation that starts the
book. We will leave it to you to find out what his adventures had been.
It takes about 3.5 hours to read this book.
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THE GILPINS, A STORY OF EARLY DAYS IN AUSTRALIA, BY WILLIAM H G
KINGSTON.