The Stony Ground

<p><em>The Stony Ground</em> is the story of Cornish farmworker James Ruse reprieved from the hangman’s noose and transported to Botany Bay on the First Fleet in 1788. Ruse commemorated as a pioneer in his adopted country was reputedly the <em>first </em>prisoner ashore carrying an officer on his back. Eventually pardoned at Experiment Farm he became Australia’s <em>first </em>settled farmer the <em>first </em>ex-convict to be granted land and the first settler to become self-sufficient bringing him into conflict with indigenous people. In this gripping historical novel the life of Australia’s most symbolic convict is described in Ruse’s own voice.<br /> </p>