But his friend William Warner persuades him to go to the notorious Cherry Gardens with him and a couple of good-looking girls. Wiseman is swept up by one of them, Jane. She falls pregnant and Wiseman is forced to marry her.

Soon after, Warner marries Sophia—cynically, in hopes of inheriting her father’s business. He is violent towards her, even breaks her jaw. Wiseman discovers this and gives Warner a savage beating.

Wiseman has always stolen from the loads he’s carried. One night his employer—tipped off in advance by Warner, in revenge for the beating—catches him stealing some timber. He is tried and condemned to death, then to transportation for life. Jane is given permission to accompany him, and in 1806 they set sail for New South Wales.

I printed this out—a satisfying pile of about 80 pages—and put it away.

The folder called ‘Australia’ held about 140 pages. I did my best to put them into chronological order, too.

The Wisemans arrive in Sydney, Solomon gets a pardon, buys a boat, starts trading up and down the Hawkesbury. Against Jane’s wishes they settle there.

There are various encounters with the Darug—some friendly, some hostile.

Wiseman plots a long-distance revenge on Warner. Through his brother, he arranges for Warner to be caught stealing. When Warner is transported, Solomon makes sure that his old rival is assigned to him. Unexpectedly, Sophia is also with him and the two couples live uncomfortably together for a time as masters and servants. Wiseman and Sophia resume their love affair in secret. But Jane humiliates and mistreats Sophia, so Wiseman arranges for Sophia and Warner to set up on land nearby.

Jane and Solomon argue continually about the ‘blacks’— Jane is frightened of them and wants to go back to London. During one of their arguments he hits her and she falls down the stairs and is killed. Wiseman more or less buys Sophia from Warner and establishes her as his housekeeper. In due course Warner dies and Wiseman and Sophia marry. There are a few more meetings between settlers and Darug. As before, some are friendly, some are hostile.

After escalating attacks on both sides, a posse of settlers is organised. It combines with troops to form a Black Line to round up all the local Darug. The Black Line is a failure but later there’s a massacre in which most of the Darug are killed. Then there’s the bit about the fig tree and the rock.

I was pleased with this. None of my previous novels had much plot. That was all right—some of my favourite books had no plots to speak of. But I was proud of the fact that, with the story of Wiseman getting his revenge on Warner, I’d stumbled on a plot of almost operatic complexity. All it needed was a few cases of mistaken identity and a bit of cross-dressing.