AustLit

'Just before dawn late in 1857, Aborigines crept up on a sleeping homestead in the Dawson River valley, central Queensland, and slaughtered eight members of the Fraser family and three employees. In the retribution by the Native Mounted Police and white vigilantes, at least three hundred Aborigines died. In this historical novel, the story of Hornet Bank is told thirty-five years later by Thomas Scott, son of the founder. He has good reason for meditating on the meaning of the Fraser massacre. His wife has been raped recently by an Aborigine at the station and now she is pregnant. Day after day they wait to see whether the child will be his or the rapist's. And, as each day passes, the strain on husband and wife creeps closer to breaking point.' (Publication summary)