Book: Pastures of the Blue Crane

Pastures of the Blue Crane
H. F. Brinsmead, 1964
(Reread)

I got this book from my aunt and uncle as a 9th birthday present, so there's no telling how many times I've reread it. And with so many books that you read first as a child and later as an adult, there are many layers that you keep peeling back everytime you read.

It tells the story of Ryl, the lonely but aloof 16 year old girl whose spent most of her life in boarding schools in Melbourne while her father worked in Papua New Guinea. After her father's death, she discovers that she has a grandfather she never knew about, as well as a property in northern New South Wales. Ryl doesn't take to her grandfather, Dusty, immediately, but when they discover that the property was where Dusty was born, they grudgingly decide to go and check it out.

This begins a strange set of relationships for Ryl - between herself and Dusty, the ramshackle house, the view, the neighbours, the local 'surfy' kids, the taxi driver descended from Australia's slave population and even the strange bird who visits the pink pastures. Soon Ryl is learning more about herself and the people around her than she ever thought possible.

This is, in many ways, a book of its time. Some of the language is cringe-worthy to us now, even though a book which place people of non-European background as 'just like us' was revolutionary for its time. It pays to remember that this was still a time of the White Australia Policy, and even non-English European immigrants were treated with derision and bigotry. The book also delves into the history of slavery in Australia. There was a time period when 'blackbirding' - taking slaves from the Pacific Islands to work on farms in Australia occured. It's a period of Australian history pretty much forgotten by all and sundry, but well described in this book.

The reason I keep coming back to this book is the layers in the characters. No one's all good or all bad. They interact with each other in very human ways. Ryl in in some ways a grown woman at 16, and in others still a little girl. It's a really lovely book and one that's well worth reading.

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