Outline for Settling on the Land

I. Frame & Thesis

• Opens with a satirical observation: the “worst bore” in Australia is the man who rants about “getting people on the land.”
• Introduces Tom Hopkins, a man who actually tried it — and whose story disproves the romantic fantasy.

II. Tom’s Departure & Naïve Optimism

• Tom leaves a successful city trade believing he’ll prosper up‑country.
• Makes a promise to his sweetheart (who disappears from the narrative).
• Selects land at Dry Hole Creek and waits for surveyors who never come.
• Begins clearing and farming “at a venture.”

III. The Grubbing Ordeal

• Learns the brutal reality of clearing Australian bush:
  • Enormous gum trees
  • Flint‑hard taproots
  • Stumps that resist every tool
• Attempts burning, digging, levering, and horse‑pulling — all failures.
• Breaks tools, chains, and his own patience.

IV. Early Sabotage & Hostility

• The local squatter becomes an adversary:
  • Tom’s tent robbed
  • Hut burned twice
  • False charges of livestock theft
• Tom survives only because two Justices of the Peace are feuding.

V. Failed Crops & Natural Disasters

• First wheat crop fails due to poor soil.
• Tom hauls manure six miles, resows, and prays for rain.
• Rain comes as a flood:
  • Washes away the crop
  • Removes soil
  • Deposits sand
  • Carries off half a mile of fencing

VI. Livestock Misery

A. Dairy Attempt

• Buys cows; their eyes get infected.
• German neighbor Jacob advises alum treatment; Tom blinds himself temporarily.
• Cows develop udder problems; butter prices collapse.

B. Disease & Death

• Cows contract “plooro permoanyer.”
• Tom follows folk cures: ear‑slitting, tail‑cutting, nostril‑pouring “pain killer.”
• All cows die except the notorious fence‑jumping Queen Elizabeth, whom Tom shoots.

C. Horses

• Plough horses get “der shtranguls.”
• Jacob’s treatment kills them.
• Tom improvises a mismatched team; chaos ensues.

VII. Social Conflict & Violence

• Hires a dummy selector’s child to drive the team; the boy is insolent.
• Fight erupts between Tom, the dummy family, and their dogs.
• Tom barely survives.

VIII. Sheep Scheme & More Sabotage

• Good grass year: Tom buys sheep to fatten.
• Squatter stations men and dogs to drive sheep off Tom’s land and into pound traps.
• Tom’s dog is poisoned and dies.
• Tom retaliates; nephew is arrested for sheep‑stealing.
• Tom assaults the squatter and is jailed for six months.

IX. Final Collapse

• After release, Tom tries again:
  • Fencing jobs
  • Marries a “missus” who robs him and runs off with the dummy
  • Cows die or are impounded
  • Rents an orchard; hail destroys everything
• Jacob comforts him with wine and a cornet march after the storm.

X. The Last Blow

• Government surveyors finally arrive.
• Reveal Tom’s actual selection is barren land across the creek.
• Squatter seizes Tom’s improvements and sues him for £2500.

XI. Asylum & Aftermath

• Tom is admitted to the Parramatta asylum.
• Later, the squatter also ends up there after drought, rabbits, banks, and wool‑ring ruin him.
• The two become friends and debate schemes to dynamite open the “flood‑gates of Heaven.”

XII. Epilogue

• Tom is discharged.
• Seen wandering suburbs at night with a dray and lantern.
• Says his only regret is not being declared insane before he went up‑country.