The Secret River: Part 2: Sydney Summary & Analysis

Thornhill arrives in Sydney, Australia, a sad and jumbled town, in September of 1806, after a nine-month journey at sea. The light hurts his eyes after so long below deck, and he vomits standing on still ground. He hears Sal cry out for him, but a guard pushes her back. Minutes later, Thornhill hears his name called and the guard "assigns" him to Sal. Willie doesn't seem to recognize his father. Now, Thornhill gets to look at the new baby, who was born at Cape Town several months before. They named him Richard after Sal's father.

The government issues Sal a week's worth of food, some blankets, and a hut. Thornhill is, essentially, a slave, bound to work for Sal doing whatever she wants. They're on their own as soon as they collect their items and inspect their hut. As the sun sets, an older drunk couple brings them a kettle with a wooden bottom. Thornhill thinks it's a joke, but the woman tells them how to use it. The man warns them against the "savages" before they leave the Thornhills.

Thornhill studies the land. The town is mostly hovels, and a wooly forest goes on for miles behind it. It's entirely foreign to Thornhill, who's only ever seen London. He thinks of his journey to this strange place and how he thought of Sal for all those months at sea. The family finally goes into the hut, and Willie insists on sleeping next to Sal. When he finally drifts off, Sal and Thornhill embrace and cry.

In the morning, Thornhill wonders if the black man who confronted him in the night was a dream. He doesn't dwell on it and instead turns to finding employment rowing boats in Sydney Cove. He works mostly for Mr. King, smuggling casks of liquor around the customs office at night.

In New South Wales, the government has instituted a ticket system in which convicts can apply for a “ticket of leave” after a year. This allows them to work and support themselves, but not to leave New South Wales. Sal and Thornhill joke for the first year that she's the mistress. They soon move into a larger hut and Sal opens a rum bar in one of the rooms. At night, they talk to each other about their future. They see from those around them that it's wholly possible to move up in the world here, and eventually they'll be able to return to London after making their fortune.

Sal is consistently astonished at the lightning and thunder, as well as the crawling creatures. She finds the trees, which are silvery gray and formless, insulting. She holds tightly to a piece of roof tile she found on her last day in London, and tells Thornhill that when they return to London, she'll take it back to where she found it. Thornhill encourages Sal to take walks outside the town limits, but she prefers to sit on the wharf at Sydney Cove.

An Aborigine called Scabby Bill lives in the settlement. He sleeps outside the hut and Thornhill and Sal give him bread sometimes. He has scars on his chest and can sometimes be convinced to dance for a sip of rum. There are several natives like Scabby Bill who live in the settlement, and many others in the forest who are invisible. They're all naked, and Thornhill thinks that there's no indication that they feel like they own the land: there are no signs, fields, or homes to signal ownership. However, white men in the settlement are sometimes speared by natives. This troubles Sal, and Thornhill is glad to be on the water all day where the spears can't get him.

In Sydney Cove, Thornhill runs into many acquaintances from the Thames. He meets Thomas Blackwood again, who insists, when Thornhill explains the circumstances that brought him to New South Wales, that someone accepted a bribe and ratted Thornhill out to Mr. Lucas. Blackwood appears to be doing well in Sydney without a false-bottomed boat, as carrying goods between Sydney and a fertile stretch of land 50 miles away is good business. The route follows the sea and then the Hawkesbury River. The river is named after Lord Hawkesbury, who sent both Blackwood and Thornhill to New South Wales.

The Hawkesbury River is the place where a boatman has a good chance of getting rich, either by farming or transporting farmers' crops. It's very remote, however, and populated by warlike natives. Blackwood says nothing when Thornhill asks about the "outrages and depredations" reported by the Sydney Gazette.

After a year, Thornhill applies for and is granted his ticket of leave. When the baby, Dick, is able to feed himself, Sal becomes pregnant again. James is born in March of 1808 and is a sickly baby. Sal barely sleeps as she comforts him every night, and Thornhill resists bonding with him. They nickname him Bub.

Three years after the Thornhills arrived in New South Wales, Thornhill can afford to purchase meat three times per week. Bub survives infancy, and Thornhill decides to find new employment after Mr. King takes on a new clerk who keeps detailed lists and begins to notice things missing. Blackwood's convict servant fell overboard a few weeks before Christmas, and Thornhill doesn't hesitate to take his place. On his first journey to the Hawkesbury, the wind is icy even though it's the middle of summer. The water swells, and Thornhill realizes he's scared. After half a day, Blackwood points to an arc of forest and says that it's where the Hawkesbury comes out. The mouth of the river is well hidden in a bay beyond some rocks.

Blackwood skillfully navigates the boat into the small bay, and Thornhill searches for the mouth of the Hawkesbury. Blackwood seems to point the boat towards solid land, but the river finally appears. Thornhill thinks the land looks like something out of a dream. Blackwood points to oyster shells and explains that the natives fish regularly. When Thornhill asks where the natives are, Blackwood replies that they're everywhere. He gestures to smoke columns running up the river, and explains that they're signaling each other that the boat is coming up the river. Blackwood sternly says that they'll only see the natives when the natives want to be seen.

Blackwood and Thornhill continue up the winding river until they reach a bay. Blackwood calls out for a man called Smasher Sullivan, and explains to Thornhill that Smasher burns oyster shells for lime. Thornhill squints at Smasher's hut and notices something that looks flayed hanging in the yard. Smasher rows out to Blackwood's boat. Blackwood is quiet, and Smasher proudly shows off a pair of black human hands, cut off at the wrists, saying that the man they belonged to won't steal from him again. Blackwood is angry and instructs Thornhill to help him row away. He hands Thornhill his telescope, and it takes Thornhill a minute to realize that the flayed body is the body of one of the natives.

When Blackwood speaks, he angrily says that men have to pay a fair price to take things. After a silence, Blackwood points to where his property is. He explains that he bought his pardon two years ago and picked out a hundred acres. Thornhill thinks that he doesn't know anyone who owns land, and is astonished that a convicted man can own land. Blackwood explains that one only has to choose a place and stay there to claim it as one’s own.

The boat passes a bend in the river that looks like a man's thumb, and for the first time, Thornhill feels as though he's fallen in love with this piece of land. He imagines standing there and calling it Thornhill's Point, but acts as though he doesn't care. Blackwood sees through this façade and tells Thornhill that the land is no good, and tells him again that out here it's "give a little, take a little," or you're dead. Thornhill insists he agrees, but Blackwood doesn't seem to believe him. Thornhill continues to think of the thumb-shaped piece of land.

When he returns to Sydney, Thornhill tells Sal about the river and the people that live there. He doesn't mention his dream of owning land there. Months later, in July of 1809, Thornhill finally tells Sal about the land. Sal laughs at the thought of farming, but realizes that Thornhill is serious. She insists that if they stay in Sydney, they'll have enough money to return to England in a few years. At the sound of their parents’ raised voices, Willie and Dick wake up and watch the two argue. Thornhill is proud that each of his three boys have their own blanket at night. He realizes that Sal's dreams are small and cautious, and although he drops the subject, he doesn't forget the land. Every trip up the river, Thornhill watches with dread to see if someone else has claimed it.

A year later, Blackwood decides to retire to his place on the river, but he takes Thornhill to get him his pardon before he does. Thornhill purchases a petition from a man who charges rum, and Thornhill proudly signs his name at the bottom. He and twelve other men take their petitions to the Governor's estate and stand in a large drawing room. Thornhill can't understand the Governor's Scottish accent, so he wonders what it would be like to live this grandly. When the Governor calls Thornhill, he pardons him absolutely. The term of Thornhill's natural life had been four years, five months. At home, Thornhill and Sal toast to his good fortune.

Thornhill decides he needs a boat of his own, as that will allow him to do well enough to not have to steal. He and Sal get out their cash box and count out 35 pounds, enough to buy one of the well-made skiffs from a man in the cove. Sal says that she read in the Gazette that Blackwood is selling his boat for 160 pounds but will take less, and tells Thornhill to borrow the rest of the money from Mr. King. She insists that they'll be able to pay it off and move back to London in a few years. Thornhill agrees, but he still dreams of moving to the land on the Hawkesbury.

Thornhill borrows 115 pounds from Mr. King, who shakes hands with Thornhill as though they're equals. When Sal comes to admire the boat, pregnant again, she suggests they rename the boat after her father's boat, the Hope. Thornhill renames the boat and Sal comes to see it with the new baby. The Hope is perfect, and Willie begins working with Thornhill now that he's eleven. The two spend much of their time trading along the Hawkesbury and develop a loyal clientele. Thornhill works nonstop, driven by the fear of the loan and hope for a future that's better than the past, particularly since he's noticing his body beginning to age and ache.

Thornhill's family thrives: Bub is now three and looks as though he'll survive; Dick is introspective and solemn; and the new baby, Johnny, loves to tinker with things. Sal is exceptionally happy. By early 1812, Thornhill has paid back a quarter of his loan to Mr. King and knows that he needs to take the land on the Hawkesbury before it's too late. He knows that although technically he needs a paper signed by the Governor, in reality, England needs people to settle the land and will look the other way.

Sal becomes pregnant again, and on New Year's Eve 1813, Thornhill tells her again about the land. She laughs, admitting that she had thought he was seeing another woman with how dreamy he's been looking. He asks Sal to give it five years and says that then they can go back to England. He reminds her of their dreams of buying a house in London, and she finally agrees to go once the baby's born. She agrees to five years and no more.