Part Six ‘The Secret River’

The opening word, ‘One blue and silver morning’ (p The opening word, ‘One blue and silver morning’ (p. 275), are deceptively calm and poetic. The deceptive calm is repeated in the description of the land as Thornhill impulsively steps ashore near Darkey Creek. It’s clear the ‘dense silence’ here contains something more menacing (p. 275) Thornhill quickly discovers where Captain McCallum failed, Sagitty’s ‘green powder’ (p. 278) has succeeded: an entire camp of Aboriginal people has been poisoned. From this moment the narrative progresses through a series of violent encounters which feel inevitable.

This section is the climax of all the conflict throughout the novel, beginning with the descriptions of the poisoning at Darkey Creek; continuing with Thornhill’s violence towards the Aboriginal woman in the corn; escalating with Dan’s assault on the Aboriginal boy and the spearing of Sagitty. All of this culminates in the massacre at Blackwood’s place.

Will vs Sal Accompanying the physical conflict between settlers and indigenous people is the intensification of the emotional conflict between William and Sal. Sal’s determination to protect her family and take an active role in their destiny (hinted at in earlier incidents) drives her to the decision that it’s time to leave the colony, and she threatens to do so whether or not Will accompanies her. (p. 291)

This threat prompts William to finally agree to Smasher’s proposal of the massacre. Other motivations include: Thornhill’s genuine fear that he or Sal, will like Sagitty, be speared to death. The unbearable alternative of leaving the land he has come to love and returning to London where he’ll never feel content.

When the settlers gather to discuss their intended local genocide at Blackwood’s place, Dan articulates what Thornhill already believes deep down: that ‘unless the blacks were settled, Sal would leave Thornhill’s Point’ (p. 298) To have to choose ‘between his wife and his place’ (p. 299) is more than Thornhill can bear, and instead he agrees to participate in the massacre, going against his conscience by joining forces with Smasher. Once again, Thornhill finds himself on a boat in the dark of night, preparing to commit a crime in the name of ‘survival’, just like when he stole to support his family in London. Although here, his crime is more chilling – he constructs a story to disguise the truth of the event.

Like the description of the timber theft on the Thames, the account of the massacre is very dense and curiously matter-of-fact. There is little dialogue and little emotion in the language Grenville uses here, but much physical detail and description such as Thornhill’s observation of the forest ‘spitting parts of itself out at them’ when the Aborigines throw rocks from the shelter of the bush (p. 306) Even when Thornhill is hit by one of these rocks, the description of the event is of the physical and not the emotional or psychological impact (p. 305)

Similarly, there are descriptions fo a spear as ‘a shadow cutting through the light and piercing the ground’ (p. 306), and of Whisker Harry’s fatal gunshot wound as something that ‘pulsated, a small evil animal inside him’ (p. 308). The figurative language (metaphors and similes) used here, while quite unemotional, still contributes very powerfully to the impact and tone of the horrific massacre scene. In its final words the section returns to the calm of the opening sentence, with an eerie stillness, but his time it conveys the horror of what has occurred; instead of merely a silence, it is ‘a great shocked silence hanging over everything’ (p. 309)

Questions: Why does Grenville describe the horrific massacre with such detachment, and how does this contribute to the scene’s impact? Identify some of the most vivid moments in this very graphic section. What makes them stand out?