The Pioneers - A Story of the Australian Outback

A couple, Donald and Mary Cameron, arrive by wagon in an unsettled area of Gippsland (in eastern Victoria) in the early-mid nineteenth century. They clear the land, build a home and establish a successful farm. Very early in the story, while Donald is away getting supplies, Mary is “visited” by two desperate men, Dan Farrell and Steve. A tricky situation for a woman on her own but she manages to win them over and they leave her, unharmed. The novel tells the story of these people, and the others who move into the district, over the next two decades or so, as they work to make lives for themselves, some honestly and some not so. It's the story of Hard-working farmers and their stoical wives facing escaped convicts, cattle rustlers, and a thoroughly evil man.

The Pioneers, Katharine Susannah Prichard's first novel, won the Hodder and Stoughton All Empire Literature Prize for Australasia in 1915.