Elizabeth Macarthur: A Life at the Edge is the first book by Australian author, Michelle Scott Tucker. How a gentlewoman like Elizabeth Veale came to marry John Macarthur, who purchased his commission in a regiment to gain honour, is unclear but, as she was willing to accompany him to New South Wales in 1789, the heart must have played a part. In their early time in the colony, though, the couple viewed it very much as a career stepping stone for John. Elizabeth certainly intended to return to England. She never did.

Elizabeth’s journal of their trip on the Second Fleet is revealing for what it doesn’t include; it’s a gentlewoman’s perspective in keeping with propriety, with no mention of convicts or naming of lowly servants. Scott Tucker reveals how the Second Fleet was outsourced to a shipping company whose culture of systematic cruelty and avarice resulted in an excessive death rate among the convicts, much of which Elizabeth must have been aware.

For her first months in the colony, Elizabeth was the only officer’s wife, but her status prevented her from associating with women lower down the social scale, making for a lonely existence. She was popular with the officers, though, and was taught botany, natural sciences and piano by them, and dined often with the Governor, and ultimately, made friends with many successive governors’ wives.

While the Macarthurs were not unkind to the native population, “The Macarthur family were a perfect example of the dissonant relationship between the Aboriginal and European peoples. John and Elizabeth believed then land was there for the taking. They had no sense of their own ignorance of Aboriginal law, land management and custom.”

But John was an aggressive and volatile agitator: he engaged in numerous duels, putting his family’s livelihood at risk. He constantly got on the wrong side of people, resulting in court martials and litigation, and his part in the Rum Rebellion led to his exclusion from New South Wales for several years in the early nineteenth century.

While John was away in England for an extended period, Elizabeth had to take responsibility for the farm, their convict labourers, and manage their business affairs, as well as the family. John’s letters expressed his gratitude, but were also critical of her methods and regularly contained “helpful” advice: one can only assume that Elizabeth must have the patience of a saint. One criticism led this resourceful woman and innovative woman to develop a method of sheep washing.

Scott Tucker paints an interesting picture of this farm wife, in her eighties a “small elderly woman in whom love and ambition and sheer force of will had combined to create a dynasty” and gives the reader quite a different perspective of transport on the Second Fleet and life during the first half-century of the colony.

It is apparent from the extensive bibliography, the detailed notes and the comprehensive index that Scott Tucker has meticulously researched her subject. The family tree attests to the prolific breeding in the absence of birth control. Eight pages of colour illustrations enhance the text. A fascinating look at an Australian icon.