Cirrus@Austlit

Berrima station returns to its Aboriginal owner, Sharp John, King of the Berrimas, when Helen Rhodes' father dies without a son. Helen, near 40, leaves the station and finds employment as nurse to an oorphan Lilla with Mr Brown of a station on the Murray, whom she subsequently marries Emma Rhodes, whom Sharp John had loved, marries their neighbour Mark Blake but he is nearly ruined when he does not gain Berrima station he leaves with his wife and later deserts her. Sharp John buys Blake's property too and when he dies leaves it to his nephew, and Berrima station to Helen Rhodes. The nephew, last of his tribe, decides to join his people in Queensland when Emma returns and dies, leaving his property to Helen's step-daughter. Verdict: "the last kings of the Berrimas have proved themselves more generous and self-sacrificing than many kings who sit on thrones ... ' [The Aboriginal characters have been educated as white men, and are landed proprietors, but pine for their people and the outdoor life.] (PB)