The Rocks of Honey

by Patricia Wrightson

The Rocks of Honey (Puffin Books)

Genres: Australia, 20th Century

176 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Winner of the Dromkeen Medal (1984).
Patricia Wrightson is one of Australia's most distinguished writers for children. Her books have won many prestigious awards all over the world. She was awarded an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) in 1977, the Dromkeen Medal in 1984 and the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1986, all for her services to children's literature. She is a four-time winner of the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year Award: in 1956 for The Crooked Snake, in 1974 for The Nargun and the Stars, in 1978 for The Ice Is Coming and in 1984 for A Little Fear. Patricia lives and writes in a beautiful stretch of the Australian bush beside the Clarence River in northern New South Wales.

Reviews

[Capn · Rating 4 out of 5]

20 years ago, this would have been a 5 star rating for me, as it has a sub-plot of an aboriginal boy coming to terms with his role in modern Australia and his ancestry. It's quite a bittersweet but positive story, realising that he has the inner resources to cope:

They were tears of forgiveness for his white self and his brown, tears of new knowledge and peace. He knew that no one must be afraid of himself or his past. He must take what the past had given him and use it with pride and care to make something good. No one could hinder him in this, or help him very much, for a man is his own responsibility and no one else's.
He knew that this old country would fashion its people, all of them, to its own shape in its own good time; and this slow growth of the country was the best hope of them all.

The problem being, of course, that it was written by a white person of the opposite gender (and if you're going to cry foul for a male author writing for a female protagonist, then it must be so the other way around as well). Personally, I think Wrightson did a great job, and 20 years ago, I'd say this was sensitive and thought-provoking and that it honoured the first peoples of Australia. But nowadays you can't, and the second part of this quote seems to speak to that, if only loud-mouthed champions would stop and think and listen for a change (reminding me irresistibility of the Douglas Adams quote in HHGttG, where the alien assumes people keep moving their mouths in talking to prevent themselves from thinking):

But even more than this had heard in the sadness and wisdom of that dim old voice. He knew that in all troubles and all times there are many men who cry out bitterly, and do no good; many who spring up as eager champions, and do no good; many who sit quiet and broken, and do no good; and perhaps only one who can set himself aside and try with all his mind to understand. And this man, brown or white, must not be jostled or ignored, for only through his understanding can come any real good.

Otherwise, the story is kids-left-to-their-own-devices after school in rural Australia in... whatever time ladies wore nylon dresses and straw hats there. Mid-century, I guess, as 1960 was when this book was first published. Main character Barney is a single child on a cattle and sheep farm, and in short order becomes much less lonely when an aboriginal farmhand is hired, bringing with him Eustace ("Useless" - the initial schoolroom nickname sticks. There's also a Bluey, a Whacko, a Cayenne, etc. in the one-room schoolhouse) and his aunt Mary. And in the same chapter, the old empty house down the road is suddenly populated - by Winnie Bates, a weird younger girl who Barney is saddled with transporting to the bus stop once their respective mothers get talking.

There's some slight anti-aboriginal sentiment in the background - Barney's mother doesn't want him 'wasting time' with Eustace - but it's kid-centric all the way, so, these sorts of adult insecurities and silliness need not apply to them. Barney and Useless are fast friends. Winnie is an unknown - all at once a thorn in Barney's side, a worthy adversary, and someone he might come to resentfully respect, maybe (Barney's opinion of girls is pretty poor and remains so). ;)

I learned that slingshots were referred to as 'shanghais' in Australia (perhaps still are!), and I really enjoyed the description of the native flora and fauna while Barney and Eustace hike around in the Gorge, climb the Three Sisters (which Old Tom (Eustace's great Uncle) tells are rightly known as 'The Rocks of Honey' in the aboriginal tradition), build dens, and try to distill their own eucalyptus oil (without a still) in hopes of undercutting the chemist and making some much needed cash to splash on their 'base-camp' (read: kid's fort they built) below the titular rocks. Barney has become entranced in the aboriginal legend of a cursed stone axe having been sequestered there, and the boys make an ongoing project of it to pass time. Barney is keen to find it, and Eustace.. we're not really sure if his heart is in it, or not. And Eustace isn't sure, either.

It's a very unique story, one I'd recommend, though I didn't enjoy the part with Winnie and the giant spider (for many reasons). But I've got one big complaint with the cover of ISBN 0140302697 (Puffin, 1977) by Jack Newnham - it's depicting a scene that didn't happen. I think he assumed Eustace was his Great Uncle or something, because Eustace certainly doesn't have white/grey/silver hair. And Barney is described as "a sturdy, freckled boy with brown eyes, pale lashes and hair that would have been ginger if the sun hadn't bleached it to toffee." Winnie has strange cream-coloured hair. So everything is off on this one. The internal illustrations are sweet and fit to the text, and are by Margaret Horder - no complaints there, and I rather enjoyed them... even the giant spider one.

I'd be interested in hearing what an Australian aboriginal reader thinks of this in 2024, especially the retrospective chapter from the perspective of Warramai (maker of the stone axe). I'm betting it holds up fairly well, but again - I come from entirely different worlds. :) Would be curious nevertheless. It's well written, the character development is understated, and the inter-personal conflict, excepting Barney and Winnie who clash openly, is realistically fleeting, subjective and nuanced. Again, there are just quiet hints that Barney's mother is prejudiced against aboriginals, and that's the end of that narrative. It's very effective in terms of immersion into this (for me) totally unknown world of rural Australia at the dawn of the 1960s. I'll end with the GoogleBooks description, taken from the 1966 edition:

"This is a story about life in the Australian bush, about aboriginal legends, and about friendship. The chief characters are a farmer's son called Barney, Eustace Gordon the 'abo' boy who becomes his friend, and Winnie Bates, who wants to join in their expeditions and is finally accepted when she helps them find the mysterious stone axe and the curse on it. It is a tale of adventure and mystery, but it is also full of poetry and the special atmosphere of the 'sunburnt country'. It will help Australia come alive to anyone who reads it. For children of ten and upwards."

(and I'll just add that this is much more pat - I don't think Winnie ever was 'accepted'. ;)

[Sean Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know it's exploring a controversial area, and I feel distinctly uncomfortable with many of the choices Wrightson made, but it remains such a beautifully written book, from every nuance of character right up to the splended evocation of the Australian landscape, that I couldn't give this any fewer stars than four. It also contains a shiveringly authentic account of a close encounter with a local spider--brrr!

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1960, Patricia Wrightson's 'The Rocks of Honey' is years ahead of it's time. This children's book follows Barney and his Aboriginal friend Eustace, and new girl Winnie, as they explore their surrounding countryside in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. There is an Aboriginal legend connected to the Rocks of Honey, and Eustace wants to find the legendary stone axe. After a mighty storm, the children discover the Aboriginal axe, and together, they must decide the right thing to do with it. Wrightson thought deeply about issues of Aboriginal land rights, racism and dispossession, as well as the idea about what it means to be Australian, and a good person. A Classic of Australian Children's Literature.

[Rosalind Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all of Patricia Wrightson's books and this, for me, is one of her best. I think it is also perhaps the most successful of her attempts at weaving ancient Aboriginal beliefs and wisdom into a story set in the here and now. She is not afraid to make reference to prejudice against the Aborigines in some quarters, but the story soars above all of that and is about the friendship between two boys and the adventure they create for themselves in the landscape that surrounds them. There is also Winnie, at first relegated to being just a bystander, but gradually edging herself into the centre of the action. The story is beautifully, simply and unassumingly told, the magic coming from the children inadvertently unlocking an old, vindictive energy when they find an ancient buried artefact. Fortunately, with the help of wise elders, the disturbed energy is eventually re-contained and all is well. But is it? The experience affects the children in different ways, some more deeply than others. The effects on each child are subtley and sensitively portrayed, and we are encouraged, almost in spite of ourselves, to recognize both the strength and reach of these ancient earth energies and the concomitant need to respect the ancient wisdom. Although first published in 1960, it is very much a book for our time.