Sarah’S Path of Courage

By Mazi McBurnie

In 1853 in Australia, the gold rush is at its peak. In Victoria, tent cities are erected in many parts of the land. Some people find gold but most do not, resulting in poverty and desperation. The tent cities are noisy, dirty, and rife with fights and brawls. Courageous and determined, women have to work extra hard to survive such violent circumstances.

Sarah is a young woman from England who arrives in Australia full of hopes and dreams. Following a brief affair, she becomes pregnant, and those dreams are shattered when she is abandoned and left to survive on her own. But Sarah finds strength she never knew she had. She gives birth to her child and, miraculously, is soon left with a large sum of money.

She moves to Melbourne with her baby where she starts a thriving business. Sarah faces further challenges but confronts them in her calm and gentle way. She is even reunited with the father of her child. When Sarah left England, she had an expectation of where her path would take her. Imagine her surprise as she lives an amazing, adventurous life she never anticipated.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Aug 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504303620

Mazi McBurnie

This is the eighth novel by this author. Mazi is a 75 yr old woman who loves to write about strong female characters. She cares for her husband who has Parkinson,s disease and her family of one dog, Albert and three Birman cats. She lives in the country area outside of Melbourne.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

I n 1853, the gold rush in Australia was at it’s peak. Tent cities were erected in many parts of Australia. Some people found gold, but a lot did not, and poverty resulted. The tent cities were noisy, dirty and there were a lot of fights and brawls. Good food was hard to come by and meat was especially hard to get. The women who lived in the tents were courageous and determined. This is the story of one such woman who arrived from England with her head filled with dreams, to endure much tragedy and pain in a gold town, before she moved to Melbourne where she established a thriving business. Sarah’s path took many turns, from tragedy, to a small affair,a child and then to a big city where she faced many more challenges in her calm and gentle way. Sarah’s story is not unusual in the era of the 1850’s. What is unusual is her courage and determination in the face of so many hardships.

Chapter 1

AUSTRALIA 1853

S arah looked out of the coach window eagerly taking in all of her surroundings as the coach wound its way through dirt tracks to Heathmont, a large gold mining town which was to be her new home in Australia. It was all so different to England, the trees and the weather especially. They had been on the coach for about four hours now and she looked forward to getting off the coach at the next town which was Heathmont, where Harry decided they should live. Harry had heard that there were many large strikes of gold in this particular area of Australia. Harry was very keen to become a gold prospector and to become rich.

As the coach weaved its way through the tracks, Sarah admired the enchanting Australian bush with coloured wattles in full bloom. Bottlebrush and tea trees all grew alongside of the track. Sarah felt like jumping out of the coach to pick some of the lovely wild flowers. The beautiful gum trees were growing all along the road, some of them with bright red blossoms. She even saw an emu running past the coach. Her husband of two days, Harry, lay sleeping in the corner of the coach. He had hardly said a word since they got off the ship. He seemed indifferent to the lovely sights of the new country. Sarah saw very little of him on the long journey out to the new land. It had been his idea to come to the Australia to search for gold which he said would make them rich forever and a day. Harry hated being poor and longed for a better life. He had not enjoyed the voyage out from England, on the passenger ship" Echo. Unfortunately Harry became very sea sick spending most of his days moaning and complaining on his small bunk eating very little and rarely leaving his bunk. There had been an outbreak of measles on the ship with many little children dying. Sarah loved the voyage out, talking to the other passengers and spending time on deck with the wind swirling around her long blonde hair. Sarah helped their mothers care for the sick children. When a child died she comforted the mothers. She was a kind, understanding girl. There were many sea burials on the voyage out on the Echo"

When they finally reached Melbourne, Sarah and Harry stayed overnight in a small rundown hotel which was all that they could afford. I Their room was dirty and full of fleas and bed bugs. Sarah could hardly wait to get out of the place, which she thought might have actually operated as a brothel. At least it was a place to stay for the night. Harry made no attempt to make love to Sarah which left her feeling a bit disappointed, as it was in a sense their real wedding night. Somehow being married in a stark office among people she did not know did not make her feel married, even though she knew that it was all legal.

Sarah wished that Harry was more romantic instead of the sullen man he now seemed to be but she thought that perhaps he was still suffering from his sea sickness. She wished that she had some family or friends to share the day with her but it was not to be. Harry was very grumpy after being seasick for the entire voyage and Sarah did not want to antagonise him further by being difficult about little things. Harry seemed to be more stubborn than she had realised in England.

Sarah had met Harry in England when she was working as a house maid at one of the country estates just outside London, where Harry also worked as a junior blacksmith. They used to spend their break times together so that Sarah felt that by now she knew Harry well enough to marry him. On the weekends, or when they both had days off, Harry and Sarah would go for a picnic or a walk in the lovely English gardens. They never had much money or time so their outings were always simple. She was now just eighteen, having worked since she was thirteen in service at large wealthy homes in the area. Sarah had to go to work at thirteen to contribute to the family’s weekly income. Her mother took in sewing and was a beautiful seamstress, but there were seven children younger than Sarah and her father was in and out of jobs, rarely keeping a job for more than a few weeks. Her mother said that father was suffering from an illness, but privately Sarah thought he was just plain lazy. The older children did most of the chores such as fetching wood and washing the dishes. When Sarah was home she was expected to mind the youngest children and cook the meals, while her mother worked on beautiful dresses for other people.

Sarah wondered if by marrying Harry, she was really escaping from a life of drudgery. Sarah had very little spare time. Her work as a housemaid in one of England’s stately homes kept her very busy, although she was treated well and liked her job. Most of her friends were already married and had moved away to other places. Sarah feared that she might become an old maid. Although she longed for a different life to that which she had in England, Sarah was not keen on coming such a long way from home to Australia, with no family or friends for support. Harry however was adamant, either she came or they did not get married, and he would go to Australia without her. Sarah wanted to be married, so in the end she gave in and agreed to accompany him on the journey. She definitely did not want to become an old maid, and she had grown tired of looking after her siblings and cooking at home for ten people when she was not working as a house maid. She wondered who would take her place as general dogsbody in her home It would most probably be her younger sister who was fourteen now. Sarah was still concerned that Australia was so far away from England and wondered how she would cope in a strange and untamed land. She tried to find out about Australia from books in the library at home, but there was not a lot of information about the country. Sarah dreamt of having a lovely white wedding with bridesmaids and beautiful flowers and getting married in an old country church. She had visions of herself in a lovely white gown with a long train and a little flower girl.

As they came closer to the town of Heathmont where tales were told about lots of gold having been found, Sarah looked out of the window and in the distance she could see a large town set among lovely purple hills, with huge forests of pine trees surrounding the town. As they came nearer, she saw a bustling main street with people walking around and lots of coaches, buggies and horses. There seemed to be a doctor’s office and a few shops, plus a number of public houses. Harry and Sarah had very little money, just enough to buy a tent and some cooking essentials, as well as a shovel and pick for Harry to go prospecting. They bought these items on arrival at the town. They went into the main general store in town where Harry obtained leases and licences for gold mining and then set off by foot for a suitable place to erect their small tent. They bought some flour and yeast to make bread and Harry said they could fish in the river and trap rabbits for food. Sarah looked longingly at the dresses in the mercantile shop. She only owned one dress, a plain brown dress with a little collar which she wore each day. Sarah knew how to fish, but not how to trap rabbits. When they walked about two miles, they set up the tent and Sarah went into the forest to collect wood for a fire while Harry fell asleep in the tent. She lit a pit fire to cook over. At first the fire went out and it took her a long while to get it going again. Later she came to know that she needed dry wood for a fire to burn well. Sarah used the yeast she had purchased to make bread in the coals trying not to use much yeast so it would last. They used straw and leaves to sleep on, in the first few days. Sarah was lucky enough to catch some fish, so along with the bread, they were able to eat. Harry set out the next day to start his gold digging with the new shovel and pick, leaving Sarah alone to try to make a home out of practically nothing. They had bought a rabbit trap and she went out to attempt to use it. She had great difficulty trying to set the trap as she was frightened that her fingers would get caught in it. An old miner came upon her and showed her how to set the trap, for which she was very grateful. Harry was gone all