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Wild Lands
From bestselling author Nicole Alexander comes an epic novel of bravery, loyalty and impossible love that takes the reader on a spellbinding journey from the streets of early Sydney to the heart of Australia's wild, untamed lands.
New South Wales, 1838, and settlers in search of fertile country are venturing far outside the colony. Literally cutting a swathe through the bush with their bare hands, they lay claim to territory beyond government jurisdiction - and the reach of the law.
As she accepts a position on one such farm, seventeen-year-old Kate Carter is unaware she is entering a land of outlaws, adventurers and murderous natives.
Because the first people of this new world will no longer accept the white man's advance, and retaliatory attacks on both sides have made it a frontier on the brink of war.
Into Kate's path comes Bronzewing, a young white man schooled by a settler family yet raised within an Aboriginal tribe. Caught between two worlds, Bronzewing strives to protect his adopted people and their vanishing civilisation.
But as he and Kate will discover, 'beyond the outer limits' is a beautiful yet terrifying place, where it's impossible to know who is friend and who is enemy . . .
'Alexander writers [with] a deep love of the land' The Courier-Mail
New South Wales, 1838, and settlers in search of fertile country are venturing far outside the colony. Literally cutting a swathe through the bush with their bare hands, they lay claim to territory beyond government jurisdiction - and the reach of the law.
As she accepts a position on one such farm, seventeen-year-old Kate Carter is unaware she is entering a land of outlaws, adventurers and murderous natives.
Because the first people of this new world will no longer accept the white man's advance, and retaliatory attacks on both sides have made it a frontier on the brink of war.
Into Kate's path comes Bronzewing, a young white man schooled by a settler family yet raised within an Aboriginal tribe. Caught between two worlds, Bronzewing strives to protect his adopted people and their vanishing civilisation.
But as he and Kate will discover, 'beyond the outer limits' is a beautiful yet terrifying place, where it's impossible to know who is friend and who is enemy . . .
'Alexander writers [with] a deep love of the land' The Courier-Mail
432 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2015
17 people are currently reading
474 people want to read
About the author
Nicole Alexander
36 books189 followersNicole Alexander is the author of eleven novels: The Bark Cutters, A Changing Land, Absolution Creek, Sunset Ridge, The Great Plains, Wild Lands, River Run, An Uncommon Woman, Stone Country, The Cedar Tree and The Last Station.
The Limestone Road will be published March 2025.
Awards: The Bark Cutters - short-listed for an Australian Book Industry Award.
Non-fiction includes;
Poetry: Divertissements: Love. War. Society. - a Anthologies: Dear Mum / Great Australian Writers
Nicole lives in north-west NSW, Australia
The Limestone Road will be published March 2025.
Awards: The Bark Cutters - short-listed for an Australian Book Industry Award.
Non-fiction includes;
Poetry: Divertissements: Love. War. Society. - a Anthologies: Dear Mum / Great Australian Writers
Nicole lives in north-west NSW, Australia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
October 24, 2015
Kate Carter’s life had changed since her father had died – ten years old and her only happiness was climbing the tallest tree and talking to his spirit. Her mother was working for the Reverend while Kate was relegated to the servants, doing chores from dawn to dusk. The new colony of New South Wales was a place of danger and hunger – Kate missed her father desperately. Ten years later on the death of her mother, Kate no longer wanted to stay in the Reverend’s employ. A headstrong and feisty young woman, she was determined to make her own way in this desolate country.
Kate's position of lady’s companion was procured by the Reverend; the advice of the many she spoke to was not to venture beyond the boundaries of the colony. But she had nothing to stay in Sydney town for – her future was in the unknown. Australia’s wild and unoccupied lands were a dangerous and unpredictable place. Travelling to the other side of the Blue Mountains was fraught with danger.
The Aboriginal people were devastated by the arrival of the white settlers. They didn’t understand the native ways; the burning of the land to generate new growth was frowned upon by the whites. But the damage done to the land by the foraging sheep hurt the tribes who had lived on the land for centuries – how could they understand each other’s culture?
Bronzewing was a white man living in an Aboriginal world. A young boy when he’d been rescued by the elder, Bidjia, he grew up with Jardi, Bidjia’s son, as his brother. Living with the tribe and learning the Aboriginal ways meant Bronzewing appreciated both sides of the argument; educated by a white family in his youth meant his loyalties were divided on many occasions.
What would happen when Kate, isolated on the Hardy’s farm for the past twelve months and working from sunup to sundown at the most mundane of tasks (certainly not what she had expected), met up with the enigmatic Bronzewing? The volatile situation with the natives attacking and murdering was terrifying – who was this white man living in an Aboriginal world? Was he friend or foe?
I absolutely loved Wild Lands by Aussie author Nicole Alexander. A fabulous portrayal of early life in the 1800s in Australia as it slowly became inhabited by convicts and white settlers alike; the heartbreak of everything the Aboriginal people had ever known being taken away from them by force. I thoroughly enjoyed the strength of character in Kate as she struggled to forge a life for herself without being dictated to by a man; the character of Bronzewing and his loyalty to Bidjia and Jardi was excellent. Wild Lands is a novel I have no hesitation in recommending highly.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy to read and review.
Kate's position of lady’s companion was procured by the Reverend; the advice of the many she spoke to was not to venture beyond the boundaries of the colony. But she had nothing to stay in Sydney town for – her future was in the unknown. Australia’s wild and unoccupied lands were a dangerous and unpredictable place. Travelling to the other side of the Blue Mountains was fraught with danger.
The Aboriginal people were devastated by the arrival of the white settlers. They didn’t understand the native ways; the burning of the land to generate new growth was frowned upon by the whites. But the damage done to the land by the foraging sheep hurt the tribes who had lived on the land for centuries – how could they understand each other’s culture?
Bronzewing was a white man living in an Aboriginal world. A young boy when he’d been rescued by the elder, Bidjia, he grew up with Jardi, Bidjia’s son, as his brother. Living with the tribe and learning the Aboriginal ways meant Bronzewing appreciated both sides of the argument; educated by a white family in his youth meant his loyalties were divided on many occasions.
What would happen when Kate, isolated on the Hardy’s farm for the past twelve months and working from sunup to sundown at the most mundane of tasks (certainly not what she had expected), met up with the enigmatic Bronzewing? The volatile situation with the natives attacking and murdering was terrifying – who was this white man living in an Aboriginal world? Was he friend or foe?
I absolutely loved Wild Lands by Aussie author Nicole Alexander. A fabulous portrayal of early life in the 1800s in Australia as it slowly became inhabited by convicts and white settlers alike; the heartbreak of everything the Aboriginal people had ever known being taken away from them by force. I thoroughly enjoyed the strength of character in Kate as she struggled to forge a life for herself without being dictated to by a man; the character of Bronzewing and his loyalty to Bidjia and Jardi was excellent. Wild Lands is a novel I have no hesitation in recommending highly.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy to read and review.
October 12, 2015
3.5 stars
Wild Lands tells not only the story of the white settlers and their hardships but also of the trials and adjustments the aboriginals had forced upon them by this new settlement.
I liked that Nicole Alexander didn’t take sides in the settlers verse aboriginals debate. The story is told with truth, there were good and bad on both sides. We get to see how hard it was for the aboriginals with their land taken from them but also the hardships, and I never imagined just how hard it was, of the settlers that came to Australia, unknowing, to start a new life.
I was a bit torn with this novel as I easily connected with Kate’s character. We hear from her from a young age. How hard her life is after her father died. How much she thinks of him and misses him. Even as a young girl she pushes boundaries. However with Adam we hear his mother’s voice and her hardships. The next time we are back with Adam he is a grown man. There is a big gap and some of it is filled in with back story but I couldn’t connect with his character until quite late in the book.
” Every woman wishes for marriage, Kate. We have three stages in our lives: daughter, wife and mother. There is nothing else to aspire to.” Mrs Kable.
Kate grows to be a feisty young woman and her outspokenness is not appreciated by most men and woman alike. Thankfully we had women like Kate in our history. She would not compromise herself and she would not settle for mediocre.
Wild Lands is a very well researched novel that I would recommend to anyone interested in early Australian history.
With thanks to Random House Aus via Netgalley for my copy to read and review.
Wild Lands tells not only the story of the white settlers and their hardships but also of the trials and adjustments the aboriginals had forced upon them by this new settlement.
I liked that Nicole Alexander didn’t take sides in the settlers verse aboriginals debate. The story is told with truth, there were good and bad on both sides. We get to see how hard it was for the aboriginals with their land taken from them but also the hardships, and I never imagined just how hard it was, of the settlers that came to Australia, unknowing, to start a new life.
I was a bit torn with this novel as I easily connected with Kate’s character. We hear from her from a young age. How hard her life is after her father died. How much she thinks of him and misses him. Even as a young girl she pushes boundaries. However with Adam we hear his mother’s voice and her hardships. The next time we are back with Adam he is a grown man. There is a big gap and some of it is filled in with back story but I couldn’t connect with his character until quite late in the book.
” Every woman wishes for marriage, Kate. We have three stages in our lives: daughter, wife and mother. There is nothing else to aspire to.” Mrs Kable.
Kate grows to be a feisty young woman and her outspokenness is not appreciated by most men and woman alike. Thankfully we had women like Kate in our history. She would not compromise herself and she would not settle for mediocre.
Wild Lands is a very well researched novel that I would recommend to anyone interested in early Australian history.
With thanks to Random House Aus via Netgalley for my copy to read and review.
August 19, 2017
This is the second of Nicole Alexander’s novels I’ve read. The first, The Bark Cutters, was marketed as a “rural romance,” which means that it’s set in the Australian outback and the main characters work on the land in one way or another. The romantic element of The Bark Cutters was entirely predictable; what I liked about the novel was its focus on the customary taboo against women inheriting and running a family farm, or “property” as they are known in Australian English. The “call” of the land—the way a family property remains home, no matter where you are in the world or how long you’ve been away—was also well evoked. Nicole Alexander, I felt, had ambitions beyond the “rural romance” genre into which her publishers had slotted her, and Wild Lands shows those ambitions fulfilled.
Wild Lands is an historical novel set in the colony of New South Wales in the 1830s. The two main characters are both the children of convicts: Kate Carter’s father is a ticket-of-leave man, which is to say a pardoned convict, and her mother the daughter of free white settlers. Adam is the child of an escaped convict mother and the naval officer she’d been assigned to work for. Adam is raised by Aboriginals, from whom he receives the name Bronzewing, but educated by free white settlers, and thus as a character he conveniently straddles both native and white worlds. Thankfully, the romance between these two doesn’t happen until near the end of the book, and so most of the novel is about something else.
That something else is survival. There are detailed descriptions of the difficulties of Aboriginal life fifty years after the white invasion, as well as the struggle of white settlers to “bring the untameable to heel,” to farm land so entirely different from anything they had encountered before. “The combination of sheep and men made mythic dreams possible”—and, of course, attempts by whites to realize such dreams destroyed utterly the extraordinary ecology of the Aboriginal way of life.
Perhaps the most fully realized section of the novel is the description of Kate’s journey by bullock dray into the “outer limits,” the area of the colony beyond that controlled by the colonial government. As it happens, my mother’s great-grandfather set out from Parramatta in western Sydney in exactly the same year—1838—and rode south to the Monaro area of southern New South Wales, where he pitched up in a borrowed tent and staked his claim to the land. His descendants are still there. Alexander’s novel helped me to understand what that journey might have been like. The sections of the novel describing the endless drudgery of women’s work on outback farms in an era when stores came just once a year are entirely convincing, and helped me to imagine what life might have been like for the women of my mother’s family, keeping going somehow in and out of their huts on the high treeless plains of the Monaro.
There are a number of infelicities: sentences such as “You are my son and I love you, but I don’t like you” and “Kate wanted to scream” don’t sound like people in 1838. The heroine’s atheism also struck me as unlikely more than three decades before the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, though that may simply be my own ignorance of the (ir)religious sentiments of the period. Still, I wish Alexander would publish less and take more time over her writing.
It’s simply not possible to write fiction set in outback Australia and ignore the presence of Australia’s first peoples, and Alexander’s novel attempts to convey the perspectives of both black and white. I cannot judge how realistic her principal Aboriginal characters, Bidjia and his son Jardi, are. Certainly her depiction of nineteenth-century white attitudes to blacks struck me as accurate. If only there had been more whites who, like Alexander’s heroine Kate, came to realize that “if the natives are savages, then surely we are barbarians.”
Wild Lands is an historical novel set in the colony of New South Wales in the 1830s. The two main characters are both the children of convicts: Kate Carter’s father is a ticket-of-leave man, which is to say a pardoned convict, and her mother the daughter of free white settlers. Adam is the child of an escaped convict mother and the naval officer she’d been assigned to work for. Adam is raised by Aboriginals, from whom he receives the name Bronzewing, but educated by free white settlers, and thus as a character he conveniently straddles both native and white worlds. Thankfully, the romance between these two doesn’t happen until near the end of the book, and so most of the novel is about something else.
That something else is survival. There are detailed descriptions of the difficulties of Aboriginal life fifty years after the white invasion, as well as the struggle of white settlers to “bring the untameable to heel,” to farm land so entirely different from anything they had encountered before. “The combination of sheep and men made mythic dreams possible”—and, of course, attempts by whites to realize such dreams destroyed utterly the extraordinary ecology of the Aboriginal way of life.
You must have noticed that the tall grasses that once thrived in this area have been eaten out or trampled by your livestock, only to be replaced by inferior ones [Adam explains]… Once you could stick your finger in the ground and the dirt was ashy and soft, now it grows hard. Not only do your sheep wander in search of better pastures but so do the animals, kangaroos and wallabies. While you worry about feed for your sheep, the Aboriginals fear starvation.
Perhaps the most fully realized section of the novel is the description of Kate’s journey by bullock dray into the “outer limits,” the area of the colony beyond that controlled by the colonial government. As it happens, my mother’s great-grandfather set out from Parramatta in western Sydney in exactly the same year—1838—and rode south to the Monaro area of southern New South Wales, where he pitched up in a borrowed tent and staked his claim to the land. His descendants are still there. Alexander’s novel helped me to understand what that journey might have been like. The sections of the novel describing the endless drudgery of women’s work on outback farms in an era when stores came just once a year are entirely convincing, and helped me to imagine what life might have been like for the women of my mother’s family, keeping going somehow in and out of their huts on the high treeless plains of the Monaro.
There are a number of infelicities: sentences such as “You are my son and I love you, but I don’t like you” and “Kate wanted to scream” don’t sound like people in 1838. The heroine’s atheism also struck me as unlikely more than three decades before the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, though that may simply be my own ignorance of the (ir)religious sentiments of the period. Still, I wish Alexander would publish less and take more time over her writing.
It’s simply not possible to write fiction set in outback Australia and ignore the presence of Australia’s first peoples, and Alexander’s novel attempts to convey the perspectives of both black and white. I cannot judge how realistic her principal Aboriginal characters, Bidjia and his son Jardi, are. Certainly her depiction of nineteenth-century white attitudes to blacks struck me as accurate. If only there had been more whites who, like Alexander’s heroine Kate, came to realize that “if the natives are savages, then surely we are barbarians.”
October 27, 2015
There are a tonne of historical romance of the American pioneering days but there seems to be a void when it comes to the Australian first settlement days. I’ve always thought there would be a very distinct difference noting Australian harsh climate and being set up as penal colonies. Wild Lands, however, does not quite fit into the romance genre –so I found out as I read! There is a bit of romance in there but in reality, this book explores the perspectives of the settlers and natives as they fight over the rights of the land.
Kate Carter has had a fairly good and protected childhood until her father died and left her and her mother penniless. Compromises were made by her mother in order to protect Kate and ensure her growth into a lovely young woman. When her mother dies, however, Kate is forced to face the harsh reality of being a woman in a man’s world. Her choices were limited but she refused to have the terms of her life dictated to her and was determined to make her own choices. Her choice led her to the outer limits of civilisation and required her to adjust her views on many things.
Adam, aka Bronzewing, was rescued by a peaceful Aboriginal man and grew up straddling both worlds (of the settler’s and the native’s). He finds himself struggling to balance the two worlds and most times, unable to make one side listen to the other peacefully. Circumstances arose where he was forced to run with his adopted father and brother. His is a fight which still is being fought today as we try to find a balance in including the Aboriginals yet also accepting their cultures into the modern world.
This novel is told from two perspectives, Kate’s and Adam’s. By Kate’s thoughts, we come to know the settlers’ viewpoint and journeyed with Kate as she adjusted herself to her new world and reformed her views by her own experiences. By Adam’s, we learn of the Aborigines way of life and so understand their anger and sorrow. Wild Lands is a very thoughtful retrospective insights of a struggling world. Lyrical in its language, it is a story to beguile all readers.
As I’ve just finished both 1788 (non-fiction work by a British naval officer on the first settling of Australia) and Capricornia (Aussie classic where author spoke up against the horrible treatment of the Aborigines) earlier this month, Wild Lands, whilst set in between these 2 novels, definitely has the sweetest ending. Even when the novel itself isn’t strictly a romance, the ending itself was... well, I smirked, I rolled my eyes, and I harrumphed! Think knight on white horse riding into the sunset...lol
Thanks Random House Australia for eARC via NetGalley in exchange of honest review
Kate Carter has had a fairly good and protected childhood until her father died and left her and her mother penniless. Compromises were made by her mother in order to protect Kate and ensure her growth into a lovely young woman. When her mother dies, however, Kate is forced to face the harsh reality of being a woman in a man’s world. Her choices were limited but she refused to have the terms of her life dictated to her and was determined to make her own choices. Her choice led her to the outer limits of civilisation and required her to adjust her views on many things.
Adam, aka Bronzewing, was rescued by a peaceful Aboriginal man and grew up straddling both worlds (of the settler’s and the native’s). He finds himself struggling to balance the two worlds and most times, unable to make one side listen to the other peacefully. Circumstances arose where he was forced to run with his adopted father and brother. His is a fight which still is being fought today as we try to find a balance in including the Aboriginals yet also accepting their cultures into the modern world.
This novel is told from two perspectives, Kate’s and Adam’s. By Kate’s thoughts, we come to know the settlers’ viewpoint and journeyed with Kate as she adjusted herself to her new world and reformed her views by her own experiences. By Adam’s, we learn of the Aborigines way of life and so understand their anger and sorrow. Wild Lands is a very thoughtful retrospective insights of a struggling world. Lyrical in its language, it is a story to beguile all readers.
As I’ve just finished both 1788 (non-fiction work by a British naval officer on the first settling of Australia) and Capricornia (Aussie classic where author spoke up against the horrible treatment of the Aborigines) earlier this month, Wild Lands, whilst set in between these 2 novels, definitely has the sweetest ending. Even when the novel itself isn’t strictly a romance, the ending itself was... well, I smirked, I rolled my eyes, and I harrumphed! Think knight on white horse riding into the sunset...lol
Thanks Random House Australia for eARC via NetGalley in exchange of honest review
September 1, 2015
This was my first Nicole Alexander book and I loved it! The two journeys that she takes us on explore the early 1800's from two different perspectives. The way the characters grow and learn as separate entities and then come together as a unified force is well done. I enjoyed the history lesson and was on edge waiting to see what would happen next. If you want to know more about Wild Australia and the black v white debate that is to this day, still ongoing, I urge you to give this book a go.
October 4, 2015
Review to come
October 18, 2015
"This land belonged to others while in contrast the settlers tried to impose their will on a mysterious place and its people. No good could come of such behaviour."
Let me state it from the outset, I loved 'Wild Lands'. This was my first Nicole Alexander book and I was most impressed. The descriptions are rich and vivid; the characters true and deep; the story strong and heartbreaking. In essence this is a tale of early life in the 1800s in Australia in which white settlers began to expand their habitation beyond the coast and the heartbreak of the Aboriginal people seeing it taken by force.
"The mountains are a buffer from the vast wilds on the other side. The thought of all that immeasurable space stretching towards a setting sun intrigued Kate. 'What's out there?' 'Natives, escaped convicts, bushrangers. I pity a man who must travel to the beyonds."
The story really flowed as characters, settings and scenarios came together and held my attention throughout all of the 400 plus pages. Initially its a story of two journeys - Kate and Adam - as both the white and Aboriginal perspectives are explored. I was in eager anticipation of when their paths would finally cross. Kate is such a strong character you cannot help but admire her.
"Kate only saw two roads that could be taken: abide by her decision to leave and start a new life, whatever that may be, or remain where she was and live as a hypocrite."
And I have to admit that Adam's journey was particularly moving:
"The stars were his ceiling, the warm earth his bed and he was subject to no-one."
"Adam strides two worlds while we sit safely within ours."
Nicole Alexander's knowledge of the Australian outback is rich and luscious. She details the beauty and danger in words than easily bring to mind the range of locations presented. The history contained here is well researched and keeps you guessing to see what would happen next when fictional characters are poured into the mix. Even if you are familiar with Australian history or someone who would like to delve deeper into the 'Wild Lands' of Australia and the whole black versus white issue, then I urge you to consider this book.
Continue reading full review at:
http://greatreadsandtealeaves.blogspo...
Let me state it from the outset, I loved 'Wild Lands'. This was my first Nicole Alexander book and I was most impressed. The descriptions are rich and vivid; the characters true and deep; the story strong and heartbreaking. In essence this is a tale of early life in the 1800s in Australia in which white settlers began to expand their habitation beyond the coast and the heartbreak of the Aboriginal people seeing it taken by force.
"The mountains are a buffer from the vast wilds on the other side. The thought of all that immeasurable space stretching towards a setting sun intrigued Kate. 'What's out there?' 'Natives, escaped convicts, bushrangers. I pity a man who must travel to the beyonds."
The story really flowed as characters, settings and scenarios came together and held my attention throughout all of the 400 plus pages. Initially its a story of two journeys - Kate and Adam - as both the white and Aboriginal perspectives are explored. I was in eager anticipation of when their paths would finally cross. Kate is such a strong character you cannot help but admire her.
"Kate only saw two roads that could be taken: abide by her decision to leave and start a new life, whatever that may be, or remain where she was and live as a hypocrite."
And I have to admit that Adam's journey was particularly moving:
"The stars were his ceiling, the warm earth his bed and he was subject to no-one."
"Adam strides two worlds while we sit safely within ours."
Nicole Alexander's knowledge of the Australian outback is rich and luscious. She details the beauty and danger in words than easily bring to mind the range of locations presented. The history contained here is well researched and keeps you guessing to see what would happen next when fictional characters are poured into the mix. Even if you are familiar with Australian history or someone who would like to delve deeper into the 'Wild Lands' of Australia and the whole black versus white issue, then I urge you to consider this book.
Continue reading full review at:
http://greatreadsandtealeaves.blogspo...
January 24, 2016
Loved this novel! I highly recommend this novel as a most enjoyable read. The story flowed and the characters were interesting as were the interactions between the various characters and the storyline which held my attention right through the novel.
Nicole Alexander paints a complex picture of life in Nineteenth Century colonial New South Wales. The convicts and white settlers, both men and women, face incredible hardships, especially as they move further away into more remote and isolated areas, taking over more land with their livestock. This leads to an increasing conflict between the original aboriginal inhabitants who have a different culture and attitudes which are not understood and regarded as irrelevant. But the picture isn’t ‘black and white’ - as there are problems on both sides and the story and characters provide an intriguing insight into this aspect.
The complexities of the racial issues are reflected through many characters but the one that stands out is Bronzewing / Adam whose is taken in and brought up to understand the aboriginal culture by an aboriginal clan under Bidjia, when he is left an orphan. He is also befriended by a white family where he is schooled during the day and with agreement from his clan leader he returns in the evenings to his aboriginal clan. He grows up, living between the two worlds, understanding both sides and at times torn between the two.
Kate is a wonderful character who has to be admired for being strong willed and determined. We follow her into the rough remote bushland and the challenges she faces, especially as a young single woman in a man’s world. She is unusually outspoken and forthright, refusing to have decisions about her future taken out of her hands.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Random House Books Australia for my copy to read and review.
Nicole Alexander paints a complex picture of life in Nineteenth Century colonial New South Wales. The convicts and white settlers, both men and women, face incredible hardships, especially as they move further away into more remote and isolated areas, taking over more land with their livestock. This leads to an increasing conflict between the original aboriginal inhabitants who have a different culture and attitudes which are not understood and regarded as irrelevant. But the picture isn’t ‘black and white’ - as there are problems on both sides and the story and characters provide an intriguing insight into this aspect.
The complexities of the racial issues are reflected through many characters but the one that stands out is Bronzewing / Adam whose is taken in and brought up to understand the aboriginal culture by an aboriginal clan under Bidjia, when he is left an orphan. He is also befriended by a white family where he is schooled during the day and with agreement from his clan leader he returns in the evenings to his aboriginal clan. He grows up, living between the two worlds, understanding both sides and at times torn between the two.
Kate is a wonderful character who has to be admired for being strong willed and determined. We follow her into the rough remote bushland and the challenges she faces, especially as a young single woman in a man’s world. She is unusually outspoken and forthright, refusing to have decisions about her future taken out of her hands.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Random House Books Australia for my copy to read and review.
October 5, 2015
Well I have no idea how Nicole does it, but she just keeps getting better and better! Last year, The Great Plains was one of my favs for the year – this year, Nicole has done it again and rocketed another of her books into my top 10 for the year. With interesting characters and a unique storyline set in Australia’s early historical time period, I was intrigued and totally drawn in to this fabulous read. We got to witness first hand both sides of the hardships and the conflicts between the settlers and the Aboriginals and also explored new and remote areas of Australia as the settlers did. Highly recommend this Australian historical novel…….
October 2, 2015
I actually gave this to my mother to read as I know she thoroughly enjoys Nicole's books - I first gave Mum a signed copy of Sunset Ridge when she was diagnosed with her 2nd bout of cancer and since then she has read all Nicole's books (and enjoyed them all).
Perhaps highest on Mum's criteria for a 'good' book is the attention to detail and historical accuracy. Mum reckons that this one is Nicole's best yet and was tremendously impressed with the obvious depth of research which went into this novel.
Well done.
Perhaps highest on Mum's criteria for a 'good' book is the attention to detail and historical accuracy. Mum reckons that this one is Nicole's best yet and was tremendously impressed with the obvious depth of research which went into this novel.
Well done.
November 5, 2015
Wild Lands is groundbreaking in many ways, and a heartfelt song to the Australian bush. Kate is a worthy main character, and the supporting cast no doubt existed in one way or another in that world.
Writing from the point of view of Indigenous characters is brave and difficult, but the author carries it off brilliantly, and this would have been a lesser book without the voices of Bidjia and Jardi.
I read this in snatches over a very busy month, and I looked forward to picking it up every night and getting lost in the wild interior. Five stars.
Writing from the point of view of Indigenous characters is brave and difficult, but the author carries it off brilliantly, and this would have been a lesser book without the voices of Bidjia and Jardi.
I read this in snatches over a very busy month, and I looked forward to picking it up every night and getting lost in the wild interior. Five stars.
September 21, 2015
Brilliant!!!!! Definitely recommend!
April 19, 2016
After a series of sudden life changing events, seventeen year old Kate Carter finds herself in a position where she is being forced to make some hard choices, none of which appeal to her growing sense of righteousness.
She is adamant that she will follow her own path, even as some would advise and conspire against it, selfishly wanting to thwart her plans for independence.
When Kate refuses a continued position offered to her by the Reverend who has provided a home for her and her mother for most of her life in exchange for services rendered, she knows she has few other choices for self preservation...she only knows she doesn't want to stay there, she wants a better life where she can be in charge of her own destiny.
But what are the risks of going it alone? She has never been alone nor has she ever been further than her immediate surrounding neighborhood.
Events suddenly force her to make a snap decision...
The Reverend is quite put out by her refusal of his offer and (uncharitably) unforgiving at the slight.
So when he comes up with an alternative proposition, Kate is surprised and a little suspicious, but equally undecided as she needs to look for the best advantage with a view to future opportunities.
With so few choices Kate has to decide between staying with the hated but understood current conditions, or taking a huge plunge into the unknown which may, or may not provide opportunities.
Does young Kate really have the courage of her convictions, or will she opt for the safer choice of a life with no room for improvement or growth? A life very much committed to servitude.
Kate's birthright should afford her a position of respected equality in her society, however, fate had determined a difficult upbringing which has consequently altered her standing drastically and limited her choices to one form of dependency or another. The only difference now between her and a convict is that she now has the right to leave at any time...she just doesn't have the means, and by virtue of that fact she is a prisoner.
Her decision now will determine the direction her life is about to take.
In 1837 New South Wales, new settlers would seek out prospective plots of land for the purpose of obtaining squatting rights until their applications for the ownership of that land was granted them by the government.
The NSW boundaries were determined by the government and marked out on the maps by a line, supposedly separating the natives' land from the (ever increasing) white mans' land.
As good fertile land became increasingly hard to find..due to the practice of over grazing sheep and livestock in general, as well as a lack of rain to renew growth..some of the more intrepid white settlers were travelling further and further out, even moving beyond the farthest reaches...encroaching beyond the boundaries of the nineteen existing settled counties.
These newly claimed lands whose boundaries were only marked by an axe wedge cut into a tree by the new claimant to mark it as his own.
These practices had disastrous effects on the native Aboriginies as their hunting grounds were continually being decimated by the grazing livestock which they were not allowed to touch. Also adversely affected were their clean water supplies as graziers sullied the creeks and rivers with their livestock washing and crossing.
The land became compacted and vegetation was reduced to nothing.
When this happened the graziers would just move their animals on to the next green pastures, leaving nothing for the natives to feed on or forage.
They [natives] were being forced to steal food for their survival, whilst all the while being pushed further away in search of fertile land where they could continue to hunt and forage...to exist.
It was the practice of the Aboriginal tribes to move around from season to season, and as they left they would light a fire to burn off all the old growth, affording the land the opportunity for regrowth and a chance to renew its resources, ensuring continued cycles of rejuvenation of vegetation for the animals which they could hunt as necessary.
The white man didn't understand or appreciate the logic behind this exercise (never crediting the natives with the intelligence for such forward planning) and took it as a provocative move to incite trouble, affording them the opportunity to rob and pillage.
These newly acquired lands beyond the boundaries which the white man were laying claim to, were outside the jurisdiction of the government and as such, anyone crossing or venturing there is technically breaking the law and leaving themselves without the protection or intervention of the law in the event of any strife or possible attack from natives who rightfully claim it as their own.
The consequences of all of the above actions and decisions reveal themselves slowly throughout the story as we follow Kate's life and those of the people she is and will be connected with.
*An interesting note is that, the housekeeper employed or assigned (as a convict) to any household of the landed gentry were all referred to as "Jelly-Belly" by anyone addressing them.
This was because they often didn't stay very long depending on their lack of ability or other deficiencies and the lady of the house couldn't be bothered with learning their names. So they all shared the common name of Jelly-Belly.
A thoroughly absorbing read. 4★s
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy to read and review.
October 11, 2017
When I met Nicole Alexander at the recent Historic Novel Society of Australasia Conference in Melbourne I happened to be looking for novels based on Australian history circa 1840. My own family includes a man who settled on a tributary of the Darling River in north western NSW in the 1840s and his wife gave birth to a son under the shelter of a dray in 1850. It's hard to imagine the actual 'life' behind those banal facts. Hearing my comments, Nicole recommended 'Wild Lands' to me, as its setting and timeframe (mostly in the late 1830s) closely matches my area of interest.
I've now read Nicole's memorable book. Her brilliant account of the struggles of those times left me both happy and sad - happy to have a graphic picture in my mind of the Australian version of 'how the west was won' and profoundly sad at the impact of this 'winning' on the Australian Aborigines. We can't rewrite our history and the author takes a balanced and sensitive approach when telling both sides of that settlement/invasion story. The long journey by bullock dray to the Big River was particularly evocative.
All the characters in this novel - men, women, white, black, squatter, soldier, 'reverend', free settler, convict, ticket-of-leave man, emancipist, Currency lass, full-blood and half-caste Aborigines, play their part in depicting the class structures and attitudes operating in New South Wales society at this time. I loved the way the author brought all parties to life so convincingly, especially the harsh life endured by women in our early history.
This novel has an additional major character - Australia's extraordinary landscape and wildlife. As the author says of herself in her Author's Note: 'I may well be white, but the land sings for me too'.
The book is a lengthy read and it ends in a rush. I hankered for a permanent happy-ever-after for Kate and Adam so I imagined a sequel .... Mrs Lycett could change the evidence she'd given to the police after her son died as ignominiously as he'd lived OR Adam could head south to the new settlement which eventually became Victoria. Failing this, readers of 'Wild Lands' should remember that one of the white perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre remained hidden from authorities (in the Macdonald Valley) for the rest of his life and was never brought to justice, so we can hope that, sequel or not, Adam too found a permanent place to hide and escape the hangman's noose.
This book is well-researched, well-written and flows well (except for a couple of modern-day observations which seemed out of place). The map and the background reading list were helpful additions. I highly recommend 'Wild Lands' to thoughtful readers interested in Australian history.
I've now read Nicole's memorable book. Her brilliant account of the struggles of those times left me both happy and sad - happy to have a graphic picture in my mind of the Australian version of 'how the west was won' and profoundly sad at the impact of this 'winning' on the Australian Aborigines. We can't rewrite our history and the author takes a balanced and sensitive approach when telling both sides of that settlement/invasion story. The long journey by bullock dray to the Big River was particularly evocative.
All the characters in this novel - men, women, white, black, squatter, soldier, 'reverend', free settler, convict, ticket-of-leave man, emancipist, Currency lass, full-blood and half-caste Aborigines, play their part in depicting the class structures and attitudes operating in New South Wales society at this time. I loved the way the author brought all parties to life so convincingly, especially the harsh life endured by women in our early history.
This novel has an additional major character - Australia's extraordinary landscape and wildlife. As the author says of herself in her Author's Note: 'I may well be white, but the land sings for me too'.
The book is a lengthy read and it ends in a rush. I hankered for a permanent happy-ever-after for Kate and Adam so I imagined a sequel .... Mrs Lycett could change the evidence she'd given to the police after her son died as ignominiously as he'd lived OR Adam could head south to the new settlement which eventually became Victoria. Failing this, readers of 'Wild Lands' should remember that one of the white perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre remained hidden from authorities (in the Macdonald Valley) for the rest of his life and was never brought to justice, so we can hope that, sequel or not, Adam too found a permanent place to hide and escape the hangman's noose.
This book is well-researched, well-written and flows well (except for a couple of modern-day observations which seemed out of place). The map and the background reading list were helpful additions. I highly recommend 'Wild Lands' to thoughtful readers interested in Australian history.
October 7, 2015
Nicole Alexander created characters and scenes that had this reader, at times, wanting to jump through the pages and save the good guys. A story that was full of deceptions and betrayals and questionable characters with few likeable ones. There were a lot of characters entwined in this story.
But I'm torn over this book. There were many chapters that I liked reading and many that felt bogged down in so much detail. I likened those chapters to starting a pleasing drive over a country road one minute and then the next, getting stuck sitting in congested traffic on a six lane highway. Sometimes more detail doesn't make for a better read, and this book had a lot of details. That said there were a few likeable characters who shone in this story. For example, Kate, Adam/Bronzewing and Jardi. Kate's character pulls at the heartstrings, Adam/Bronzewing had his own set of struggles and the ensuing conversations between Jardi and Bronzewing towards the end were at many times funny.
Kate's strength, courage and tenacity were good traits that shone for her character.
I liked the conversations between Kate and Bronzewing. Often cheeky and heartfelt. The highlight were the last twelve chapters that flew at a great rate.
Wild Lands by Nicole Alexander was a story portrayed in an unforgiving landscape fraught with challenges aplenty for each of the characters. A very detailed book, but overall the story was a good read and probably one I could read again in years to come.
3 Stars
Review copy received from the Publisher
But I'm torn over this book. There were many chapters that I liked reading and many that felt bogged down in so much detail. I likened those chapters to starting a pleasing drive over a country road one minute and then the next, getting stuck sitting in congested traffic on a six lane highway. Sometimes more detail doesn't make for a better read, and this book had a lot of details. That said there were a few likeable characters who shone in this story. For example, Kate, Adam/Bronzewing and Jardi. Kate's character pulls at the heartstrings, Adam/Bronzewing had his own set of struggles and the ensuing conversations between Jardi and Bronzewing towards the end were at many times funny.
Kate's strength, courage and tenacity were good traits that shone for her character.
I liked the conversations between Kate and Bronzewing. Often cheeky and heartfelt. The highlight were the last twelve chapters that flew at a great rate.
Wild Lands by Nicole Alexander was a story portrayed in an unforgiving landscape fraught with challenges aplenty for each of the characters. A very detailed book, but overall the story was a good read and probably one I could read again in years to come.
3 Stars
Review copy received from the Publisher
September 15, 2015
Once again this author has not disappointed. I know this book is classified as fiction, but just reading the Author’s Note that Nicole includes will show you it is so much more. As always, it is the historical reality that makes reading a Nicole Alexander story such a pleasure.
The clear and sometimes shocking differences that existed between the lives and cultures of the colonials compared to the Aboriginal people in the early 1800’s is so well told.
Kate Carter, at the tender age of seventeen, is a truly brave character. Her naiveté, combined with the male characters’ guidance, lands Kate in an environment that would challenge a person twice her age. Kate not only survives, she sees through the misdirection and grows to be a strong character who’s final decision made me, the reader, so proud of her.
Bronzewing was raised by an aboriginal tribe and lives a unique life--one that from the start seems destined to cross paths with Kate. The lessons learned by Kate, as a result of their meeting, have a considerable affect on Kate’s future.
This story is powerful and one to definitely add to your reading list.
The clear and sometimes shocking differences that existed between the lives and cultures of the colonials compared to the Aboriginal people in the early 1800’s is so well told.
Kate Carter, at the tender age of seventeen, is a truly brave character. Her naiveté, combined with the male characters’ guidance, lands Kate in an environment that would challenge a person twice her age. Kate not only survives, she sees through the misdirection and grows to be a strong character who’s final decision made me, the reader, so proud of her.
Bronzewing was raised by an aboriginal tribe and lives a unique life--one that from the start seems destined to cross paths with Kate. The lessons learned by Kate, as a result of their meeting, have a considerable affect on Kate’s future.
This story is powerful and one to definitely add to your reading list.
April 30, 2016
The confrontation between the white settlers and the original inhabitants of Australia is the constant background to Nicole Alexander's 'Wild Lands'. She elaborates and pontificates on this theme for the entire book. Sentences such as 'He has no respect for our way of life and we do not understand his. We live from and with the land, they seek to own it, control it.' are echoed throughout. While this sad part of Australia's history is well-researched and the author's love for the land shines through, I somehow found the constant reiteration, attention to descriptive detail, and interminable conversations boring; it turned what could have been a powerful and heartbreaking novel if it had been reduced in size and detail into a plodding saga. To me it's a case of 'less is more'. And when we finally got to the end, it was a Mills and Boon cliche. I know I am in the minority here as other readers have loved the depth of detail and scope of the novel.
[Also, I guess it's an editor thing, but I prefer the first inhabitants to be referred to as 'Aborgines' not 'Aboriginals' (which is an adjective!!!)].
[Also, I guess it's an editor thing, but I prefer the first inhabitants to be referred to as 'Aborgines' not 'Aboriginals' (which is an adjective!!!)].
March 15, 2017
I've read a handful of books set in New Zealand in the same era, but none of them made me nearly as sad as this did about the colonisation process.
Having not studied any Australian history, I had a vague idea of things being negative in that regard, but just how bad, and how strong the colonial attitudes had escaped me. I think this book (while fiction) shines a light on what are probably quite accurate stereotypes of the English settlers.
Kate is a woman in the wrong time. Which grated somewhat. Her ways of thinking were far too thoroughly modern for a woman raised the way she was.
While I wanted Kate and Adam to end up together, I think the way it happened was too sudden and cliche. What I really wanted was for their story to continue on for a little, to show how they get along, and what happened to them. Alternatively, a sequel would be good.
And what happened to the Lycetts? That last scene of them in Sydney NEEDED follow up.
Having not studied any Australian history, I had a vague idea of things being negative in that regard, but just how bad, and how strong the colonial attitudes had escaped me. I think this book (while fiction) shines a light on what are probably quite accurate stereotypes of the English settlers.
Kate is a woman in the wrong time. Which grated somewhat. Her ways of thinking were far too thoroughly modern for a woman raised the way she was.
While I wanted Kate and Adam to end up together, I think the way it happened was too sudden and cliche. What I really wanted was for their story to continue on for a little, to show how they get along, and what happened to them. Alternatively, a sequel would be good.
And what happened to the Lycetts? That last scene of them in Sydney NEEDED follow up.
September 4, 2018
Kate is the daughter of a pardoned convict and her mother works for a 'Reverend'. When circumstances change Kate takes the opportunity of a position on a farm over the mountains beyond the jurisdiction of the government. The trip is through wild land and she is expecting a house similar to the one she left. Adam's father takes his little family on the run from the authorities and never returns to the bark hut by the river where they're camped. An aborigine takes him and Adam is bought up with the tribe and is schooled by a white man on the farm where the aborigines work as stockmen. I couldn't put this book down. It's such an accurate account of early settlement in Australia in the late 1800's.
July 11, 2016
Loved this book, I love historical fiction, particularly Australian, and I'm so glad I saw this at Kmart. The main character Kate's views, at least at first, on Aborigines were not completely for them, which even though is not relatable (at least for me) I thought it more captures the education of that time.
I also thought it was interesting *minor spoiler* about Adam/Bronzewing being a white raised by Aboriginals, I have read a book or two of it the other way round, but not that.
Now want to read another of Nicole Alexander's work :)
I also thought it was interesting *minor spoiler* about Adam/Bronzewing being a white raised by Aboriginals, I have read a book or two of it the other way round, but not that.
Now want to read another of Nicole Alexander's work :)
June 22, 2016
I really loved this book. My husband is Australian, so it was great to have a view of how it was like during the times of the 1800s. I was hoping that the relationship between Kate and Adam happened a bit sooner in the book instead of near the end, but I thoroughly loved the book and would highly recommend this book to someone wanting a historic read.
January 31, 2017
I didn't like this one as much s Bark Cutters although it gives very good descriptions of the bush. it did bring home to me the conditions of some women in the early 1830s a period I had researched doing family history. No wonder peole stuck close to teh coastline for so long. The prejudice of the times lingers on in many parts of Australia.
April 13, 2017
If you like Nicole Alexander, you'll like this one too.
February 13, 2017
Even considering the very flowery prose...this is a great story. A view from both sides of the story, neither right nor wrong. Just trying to co-exist.
June 10, 2018
(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)
New South Wales, 1838, and settlers in search of fertile country are venturing far outside the colony. Literally cutting a swathe through the bush with their bare hands, they lay claim to territory beyond government jurisdiction - and the reach of the law. As she accepts a position on one such farm, seventeen-year-old Kate Carter is unaware she is entering a land of outlaws, adventurers and murderous natives.
Because the first people of this new world will no longer accept the white man's advance, and retaliatory attacks on both sides have made it a frontier on the brink of war.Into Kate's path comes Bronzewing, a young white man schooled by a settler family yet raised within an Aboriginal tribe. Caught between two worlds, Bronzewing strives to protect his adopted people and their vanishing civilisation.
But as he and Kate will discover, 'beyond the outer limits' is a beautiful yet terrifying place, where it's impossible to know who is friend and who is enemy...
*4.5 stars*
Not long ago, I read the previous historical novel by Nicole Alexander called "The Great Plains" and, while I loved the story, I felt that, at about 550 pages, it was just too long to sustain the story. And then comes this one - another historical novel, set solely in NSW this time, telling the story of a clash of cultures between White Australia and our First Nations people, telling some of the story of the frontier wars between the two peoples. And it was 450 pages - and worked perfectly.
The story of Kate's journey to "the outer limits" (an area beyond the control of the colonial government) and Adam's tale come together in one of the better Australian historical fiction novels I have ever read. I don't want to go over the plot piece by piece, nor any of the other aspects of the story for fear of telling too much...
This is one of those reviews that are just best left saying - check it out!
Paul
ARH
New South Wales, 1838, and settlers in search of fertile country are venturing far outside the colony. Literally cutting a swathe through the bush with their bare hands, they lay claim to territory beyond government jurisdiction - and the reach of the law. As she accepts a position on one such farm, seventeen-year-old Kate Carter is unaware she is entering a land of outlaws, adventurers and murderous natives.
Because the first people of this new world will no longer accept the white man's advance, and retaliatory attacks on both sides have made it a frontier on the brink of war.Into Kate's path comes Bronzewing, a young white man schooled by a settler family yet raised within an Aboriginal tribe. Caught between two worlds, Bronzewing strives to protect his adopted people and their vanishing civilisation.
But as he and Kate will discover, 'beyond the outer limits' is a beautiful yet terrifying place, where it's impossible to know who is friend and who is enemy...
*4.5 stars*
Not long ago, I read the previous historical novel by Nicole Alexander called "The Great Plains" and, while I loved the story, I felt that, at about 550 pages, it was just too long to sustain the story. And then comes this one - another historical novel, set solely in NSW this time, telling the story of a clash of cultures between White Australia and our First Nations people, telling some of the story of the frontier wars between the two peoples. And it was 450 pages - and worked perfectly.
The story of Kate's journey to "the outer limits" (an area beyond the control of the colonial government) and Adam's tale come together in one of the better Australian historical fiction novels I have ever read. I don't want to go over the plot piece by piece, nor any of the other aspects of the story for fear of telling too much...
This is one of those reviews that are just best left saying - check it out!
Paul
ARH
January 22, 2022
I liked this book the author writes about the times then and the racial issues without taking sides. It saddened me that a man of the cloth had no problem abusing and using the girls mother and consequently ended up doing things that she otherwise wouldn't of done. It amazes me what a lot of people have had to go through just to be able to live their perseverance is incredible. Social class stood out as well just how you got to Australia and a lot of people being treated like dirt for no other reason than social standing and or race. I'll read another of her books
January 5, 2019
At times this book dragged. However the research and the detail into this period of history was worth the read. The hardships, farming life, relationships between aborigines and whites, the hierarchical British snobbery being imposed on the new NSW, the role if women and a little about convict life kept me interested. I’m not sure if I totally related to the main character, Kate Carter. I can’t believe that a woman of that era would see living by herself with her cats as an option.
November 2, 2017
This was an entertaining read, nothing too challenging but interesting all the same. Lovers of Australian outback stories with some drama and romance included will find this story appealing I would think.
July 29, 2020
Kept me interested... felt the end was a bit rushed.
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