Part 5: ‘Drawing a Line’ (pp. 235-71)

A large of group of Aboriginal people set up a camp near the Thornhills’ hut, in what, to a modern reader, appears to be a traditional corroboree. The Thornhills, however, assume the Aboriginal people must be gathering and preparing to attack.

Key Point: When he watches the Aboriginal singing and dancing from a distance, Thornhill finds ‘no more sense to the sound’ than in ‘an insect’s drone’ (p. 243) But, at the same time he realizes that the Aboriginal people are singing something as familiar to them as church hymns are to Thonrhill. Yet he does not allow this realization to change his attitude significantly: this is one of the many examples where we see Thornhill on his way to an understanding that he never reaches.

Events: The tension increases even more and tempers within the family are short. Thornhill continues to keep the truth from Sal as he loads his gun in the knowledge that it is a gesture only, and cannot really protect them. When the gathering ends after a week the Thornhills still feel that conflict is imminent. William, is unable to return to his state of breezy denial. He’s certain now that if an when the Aboriginal people choose to attack, there’ll be nothing he can do to protect himself and his family: ‘Thornhill had known all this before, but now he could forget it, even for a moment’ (p. 247) This is an important turning point for Thornhill, foreshadowing his later decision to take part in the massacre at Blackwood’s.

Despite Thornhill’s sense of powerlesslness in the face of an imagined attack, he marshals the family, buys more guns, and makes a show of clearing the land around his hut, creating an illusion of control. During this process, Dick carelessly throws a makeshift ‘spear’, accidentally revealing the extent of his friendship with the Aboriginal people. This marks the division between Dick and his family, which is caused by his ability to interact peacefully with the Aborigines whereas Thornhill is unable to.

When he visits Smasher intending to buy dogs from him to incrase the protection around his hut, Thornhill symbolically shifts away from Deick’s peaceful interaction with the Aboriginal people and towards Smasher’s more violent attitude. However, when Smasher proudly shows off the Aboriginal woman he is sexually abusing and keeping chained in his hut, Thornhill is repulsed by how close he has come to sharing Smasher’s attitude. He leaves in a hurry, and rows away from Smasher’s camp ‘the greasy smoke hung low over the water’, reflecting Thornhill’s feelings of shame, disgust and sadness (p. 253).

The settlers meet and discuss the attack kon the Webbs, one of many ‘outrages and depredations’ during the year 1814 (. 260). Once again, Thornhill is caught between two possible approaches: Smasher’s angry violence towards the Aboriginal people, and Blackwood’s defence of them. It has reached the stage where ‘the native problem’ (p. 261) is no longer a private issue among the settlers, but a larger colonial ‘problem’, to the extent that the Governor issues a warrant and Captain McCallum is sent to Thornhill’s Point to organize ‘an ingenious stratagem’ to ‘trap the natives down on Darkey Creek’ (p. 261)

The eventual failure of this plan reaffirms Thornhill’s conviction that what might be wise and powerful at ‘home’ is useless in this foreign land. However, the violence begins to escalate as the Governor issues a proclamation effectively encouraging the settlers to shoot the ‘black natives of the colony’ whenever possible (p. 266). This state-sanctioned violence towards Aboriginal people is echoed in the relationships between settlers too, as tensions increase particularly between Smasher and the others, leading to the climax of this section when Blackwood attacks Smasher. The physical violence is also reflected in the relationship between William and Sal, as they argue about whether to stay on Thornhill’s Point.

QUESTIONS: In what ways to various characters ‘draw a line’ in this section? What does the novel suggest about the connection between fear and violence?