By the 1700s, the Aborigine people have lived in harmony with the land in Australia for sixty thousand years. But now, ghost-ships are arriving, their very existence is threatened by a terrifying white invasion. When Jonathan Cadwallader leaves Cornwall to sail on the Endeavour, he leaves behind his sweetheart, Susan Penhalligan ...That is, until an act of brutality reunites them in the raw and unforgiving penal colony of New South Wales. Billy Penhalligan has survived transportation and clings to the promise of a new beginning. But there will be more suffering before he or his fellow convicts can regard Australia as home ...A sweeping tale of discovery, love and hardship in the sixteenth century which will bring emergent Australia and all its inhabitants - new and old - to life.

Conflict Surviving a vicious massacre, the Aboriginal boy, Mandawuy is the last of his tribe. He will face the ultimate choice – to join with the white man, or to rebel alongside the warriors who are waging a war against them, pitting their stone-age weapons against guns. Passion When George Collinson meets Eloise at the Governor’s Mansion in Sydney, it is love at first sight. But Eloise is married to Edward Cadwallader – George’s nemesis and a man capable of great brutality, a man who will never let Eloise or their son leave him alive... Friendship Their husbands are devoted friends but Nell Penhalligan and Alice Quince clash from the moment they meet. However, when tragedy threatens, they will have to overcome their enmity to make a success of the outback sheep station they rely on for survival. Rebellion Niall Logan is one of many Irish children sent to Sydney in chains. As he struggles to survive the cruelty in the convict colony, he yearns only for freedom and a ship to take him home. Despite the knowledge that insurrection is punishable by hanging, a chance to rebel will change everything for him.

Is her love worth more than gold? Following in the pioneering footsteps of the women who have gone before her, Ruby and her new husband James brave a long and treacherous journey to start their new life together. However, they soon discover that there are many more dangers than just those that meet the eye. When James is tempted away by the gold rush, Ruby must join forces with the Aborigine girl Kumali and learn to adapt, if they’re going to survive. Meanwhile there are other new arrivals to Australian a Tahitian with a mysterious past, a naïve young schoolmistress, and an English aristocrat, all unaware that their destinies are irrevocably intertwined. As fortunes are made and lives are lost, many secrets will be uncovered. But those torn apart by feuds, greed, hatred and circumstance, will ultimately find they have to unite under the same flag...