The Drover’s Wife Summary

The bushwoman is alerted to the fact that a snake has just entered her small, ramshackle house deep in the Australian outback by her eldest son, Tommy. Tommy goes after the snake with a stick, and the family dog, Alligator, follows suit. Both are unable to catch the snake, however, which slips under the floorboards of the house.

Aware that a snake bite so far from help would be deadly, the bushwoman unsuccessfully attempts to lure the snake out. With the sun setting and a thunderstorm on the horizon, she sets up a bed on the kitchen table for her children, where they will be out of the snake’s reach.

The bushwoman once dreamt of a more comfortable life and enjoyed being pampered by her husband, a drover. Ever since he lost everything in a drought, however, she has grown used to being alone and working tirelessly to ensure her family’s survival. Although she does not see her husband very often, he treats her well. However, because he is gone for long periods of time, she is left to take care of the family on her own and protect them from the various threats they face in the bush. She once nearly died in childbirth, and only survived with the help of a local Aboriginal couple. When one of her children died, she rode nearly 20 miles with the child’s body in search of help. She also once fought a bush-fire that nearly consumed the house, managing to put it out with the help of four bushmen who arrived at the last minute.

She has not always won against the assaults of nature: she cried after a flood broke through the dam her husband had built, and she lost two her two best cows to illness. But she has successfully fought off many wild animals, and also held her own against men who have come to the door while her husband is away. She has few pleasures in the outback, though she makes time to read the Young Ladies’ Journal is sure to dress herself and her children up every Sunday and go for long walks through the bush with her baby carriage.

The bushwoman realizes that her candle is about to go out, so she goes to get some wood from the woodpile. When she does so, the woodpile collapses, causing her to realize that the Aboriginal man who constructed it must have deceived her by building it hollow. She begins to cry, but soon calms down.

Alligator suddenly approaches the partition between the kitchen and the rest of the house, and the bushwoman realizes that the snake must be emerging. She grabs her stick, but Alligator gets there first. The dog grabs the snake with his mouth and shakes it until it dies. The woman then throws the snake’s remains into the fire. Tommy embraces his mother and promises that he will never be a drover like his father.