VI: A Coach Accident explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Colonial Identity and the Bush

  Mary Grant's arrival and her first experiences with the harsh, unrefined conditions of bush life—dirty hotels, flooded creeks, and makeshift clothing—highlight the contrast between English expectations and colonial reality.

• Social Class and Mobility

  Mary's status as a wealthy landowner's daughter creates a stir among the locals, and her confident, commanding manner contrasts with the rough, egalitarian bush society.

• Survival and Resilience

  Mary survives a coach accident and a near-drowning with composure, quickly adapting to her circumstances and laughing at her ill-fitting borrowed clothes.

Characters to notice

• Mary Grant

  Arrives at Tarrong with extensive luggage; survives coach accident; rescued by Gavan Blake; meets Hugh Gordon; experiences bush life at Donohoe's Hotel.

• Hugh Gordon

  Arrives late to meet Mary due to flooded creeks; shows hostility toward Blake; offers Mary a ride in his wagonette.

• Gavan Blake

  Travels on the coach; rescues Mary from the creek; exchanges hostile looks with Hugh; refuses a lift initially but eventually joins the wagonette.

• Mrs. Connellan

  Landlady of Tarrong Hotel; gossips about Mary's identity; staggered to learn Mary is Mr. Grant's daughter.

• Father Kelly

  Passenger on the coach; helps after the accident; insists Blake get into the wagonette; talks with Mary at Donohoe's.

• Patsy Donohoe

  Mailman and coach driver; handles the accident and arranges to recover luggage using draught horses.

• Mrs. Donohoe

  Provides dry clothes for Mary at Donohoe's Hotel; serves tea and cakes.

Key passages

• “The coach from Tarrong railway station to Emu Flat, and then on to Donohoe’s Hotel, ran twice a week. Pat Donohoe was mailman, contractor and driver, and his admirers said that Pat could hit his five horses in more places at once than any other man on the face of the earth.”

  The coach service from Tarrong to Emu Flat and Donohoe's Hotel operated only twice weekly, driven by Pat Donohoe, who was famously skilled at lashing his team of five horses.

  Introduces the coach and its driver, setting the scene for the journey.

• “On the day when Hugh and Mrs. Gordon read Mr. Grant’s letter at Kuryong, the train deposited at Tarrong a self-reliant young lady of about twenty, accompanied by nearly a truck-full of luggage—solid leather portmanteaux, canvas-covered bags, iron boxes, and so on—which produced a great sensation among the rustics.”

  The same day Hugh and Mrs. Gordon received Mr. Grant's letter, a confident young woman of about twenty arrived at Tarrong by train with an enormous amount of luggage, causing a stir among the locals.

  Highlights Mary Grant's arrival and the immediate impression she makes.

• “The young lady gave him a pleasant smile, and handed him the bag; together they crossed the street, while the other commercials marched disconsolately behind. At the door of the hotel she took the bag from her cavalier, and there and then, in broad Australian daylight, rewarded him with twopence—a disaster which caused him to apply to his firm for transfer to some foreign country at once.”

  Mary smiled at the commercial traveller who offered to carry her bag, let him help her across the street, then tipped him twopence at the hotel door—humiliating him so much that he requested a transfer abroad.

  Illustrates Mary's independent and slightly mocking attitude toward colonial men.

• “She had had her first touch of colonial experience.”

  This was Mary's first taste of life in the Australian bush.

  Concludes the chapter by emphasizing Mary's initiation into colonial life.