Mattie : coming of age in convict Australia / Sheila Hunter

HISTORICAL FICTION. AUSTRALIAN. Vividly brings to life the colonial beginnings of Port Jackson and the goldfields. As a 12-year old London street urchin Mattie is convicted for petty theft and sentenced to 7 years transportation to the penal colony in Port Jackson, New South Wales. Another female convict. Peg takes her under her wing and gives her a chance of making something of this new and strange life. Mattie makes something of every opportunity that comes her way, and though life is not particularly kind to her, she battles though, earning her freedom, marrying and becoming a mother in her new home. On this amazing journey she gets entangled with bushrangers, becomes a goldfields entrepreneur, sadly gets widowed, but her spirit is indomitable and she becomes both a pillar and a much-loved treasure of her adopted community.