say after rejecting a name put forward on the church charity list on the basis of infrequent attendance at Sunday morning worship, combined with recent knowledge of a husband seen full as a boot outside the Royal Mail Hotel.
The Thomases are the richest family in the district by far. That is to say, Ada Thomas is, because it was the fortune she brought to the marriage that made her husband George prosper despite his being an ex-riverboat captain without any previous experience on the land. Heâs still the more unpopular of the two, but she holds the cheque book and that, people say, makes her an even bigger bitch than he is a bastard, though thereâs little to choose between them.
Even the vicar dares not stand up to Ada Thomas, possessing as he does a flock under his pastoral care with barely a penny between them. His is not a wealthy congregation and his living is a precarious one. Ada Thomasâs benevolence forms the major part of the parish income and so Reverend Samuel Mathews, M.A. Oxon., figuratively touches his forelock to the mistress of Riverview. His well-cultivated vowels are used too frequently in her praise when he ought to have been telling her to mind her own business.
If it wasnât for Ada Thomas, the Anglicans would not be any better off than the rest of Godâs local affiliations. The Catholics look after their own and with the local Irish making up most of the congregation their resources are sorely stretched. The Lutherans are really missionaries who take care of the Aborigines and so are quite unacceptable. The Baptists and Presbyterians donât have any money to speak of. In fact, Jesus is a pauper in all these denominations.
The God-fearing Ada was not amused when, nearly a year after Billy Simonâs accident at Riverview Station, a mob of starving Aborigines, trying to escape the terrible drought further up north around the Darling River, turned up at Adaâs doorstep begging for sustenance. Ada immediately saw them as the property of the Lutherans and therefore a pestilence sent against the Anglicans by another, inferior denomination.
Ada tried to send them away, but they were either too exhausted or too desperate to move and remained in the yard, pleading for food.
âIf we feed the brutes theyâll just stay,â she told the cook. âYouâre not to give them anything except water. Theyâre like animals â if you show them kindness, weâll never get rid of them.â
The dogs were out with the men on one of the runs and so she couldnât set them onto the blacks camped in the yard. Ada called Billy in from the garden and demanded he fire a charge of birdshot into the air above their heads. This he refused to do, blubbering and clutching his hat over his head while she shouted furiously at him in vain. Then when heâd mumbled and stammered and finally run away to hide, sheâd done it herself. But the blacks still wouldnât move and sheâd finally lost her temper and fired the small-bore shotgun at the legs of several of the adult men who stood to one side of their gins. The light birdshot peppered them, sending bright rivulets of blood down their dark, stick-thin legs, over their large, broken feet and the cracks in the soles and down into the dust.
That was not the end of it, either. Calling for their horses to be saddled, Mrs Thomas and her two daughters drove the blacks off their land, beating them over the head and shoulders with their riding crops. Long lines of flies queued along the furrows of dried blood on their dust-encrusted legs. The men remained silent, unflinching at the blows from the riding crops, though the gins wailed their misery, carrying and dragging their starving kids with them.
Ada Thomas was fined ten shillings by the police magistrate when he sat at Narrandera a month later. Her defence had been that they were trespassing on her land and were godless creatures and so didnât rate her
The Thomases are the richest family in the district by far. That is to say, Ada Thomas is, because it was the fortune she brought to the marriage that made her husband George prosper despite his being an ex-riverboat captain without any previous experience on the land. Heâs still the more unpopular of the two, but she holds the cheque book and that, people say, makes her an even bigger bitch than he is a bastard, though thereâs little to choose between them.
Even the vicar dares not stand up to Ada Thomas, possessing as he does a flock under his pastoral care with barely a penny between them. His is not a wealthy congregation and his living is a precarious one. Ada Thomasâs benevolence forms the major part of the parish income and so Reverend Samuel Mathews, M.A. Oxon., figuratively touches his forelock to the mistress of Riverview. His well-cultivated vowels are used too frequently in her praise when he ought to have been telling her to mind her own business.
If it wasnât for Ada Thomas, the Anglicans would not be any better off than the rest of Godâs local affiliations. The Catholics look after their own and with the local Irish making up most of the congregation their resources are sorely stretched. The Lutherans are really missionaries who take care of the Aborigines and so are quite unacceptable. The Baptists and Presbyterians donât have any money to speak of. In fact, Jesus is a pauper in all these denominations.
The God-fearing Ada was not amused when, nearly a year after Billy Simonâs accident at Riverview Station, a mob of starving Aborigines, trying to escape the terrible drought further up north around the Darling River, turned up at Adaâs doorstep begging for sustenance. Ada immediately saw them as the property of the Lutherans and therefore a pestilence sent against the Anglicans by another, inferior denomination.
Ada tried to send them away, but they were either too exhausted or too desperate to move and remained in the yard, pleading for food.
âIf we feed the brutes theyâll just stay,â she told the cook. âYouâre not to give them anything except water. Theyâre like animals â if you show them kindness, weâll never get rid of them.â
The dogs were out with the men on one of the runs and so she couldnât set them onto the blacks camped in the yard. Ada called Billy in from the garden and demanded he fire a charge of birdshot into the air above their heads. This he refused to do, blubbering and clutching his hat over his head while she shouted furiously at him in vain. Then when heâd mumbled and stammered and finally run away to hide, sheâd done it herself. But the blacks still wouldnât move and sheâd finally lost her temper and fired the small-bore shotgun at the legs of several of the adult men who stood to one side of their gins. The light birdshot peppered them, sending bright rivulets of blood down their dark, stick-thin legs, over their large, broken feet and the cracks in the soles and down into the dust.
That was not the end of it, either. Calling for their horses to be saddled, Mrs Thomas and her two daughters drove the blacks off their land, beating them over the head and shoulders with their riding crops. Long lines of flies queued along the furrows of dried blood on their dust-encrusted legs. The men remained silent, unflinching at the blows from the riding crops, though the gins wailed their misery, carrying and dragging their starving kids with them.
Ada Thomas was fined ten shillings by the police magistrate when he sat at Narrandera a month later. Her defence had been that they were trespassing on her land and were godless creatures and so didnât rate her
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