Mattie: Story of an Australian Convict Child

Coming of Age in Convict Australia
Australian Historical Fiction, inspired by a real story

Twelve-year-old London street urchin Mattie Paul is convicted of petty theft and sentenced to seven years of transportation to the penal colony of Port Jackson, NSW. Peg, another female convict, takes Mattie under her wing and gives her a chance to make something of her life by teaching her to read. Mattie seizes every opportunity that comes her way.

Though life is not particularly kind to her, she battles through, earning her freedom, marrying and becoming a mother in her homeland. On this journey, she encounters bushrangers, is widowed, and becomes an entrepreneur in the Bathurst goldfields. She mixes with escaped convicts, but her spirit is indomitable, and she becomes a pillar and much-loved treasure of her adopted community.

Mattie may be a fictional character, but her experiences are only too real and invest us in immersing ourselves in the lives of those remarkable women who helped to make Australia what it is today.

Sheila Hunter was Co-winner of 1999 NSW Premier's Senior Achievement Award in Year of Senior Citizen.

Nurse, wife and mother as well as an Amazing Storyteller!