Summary
“Flight” by Katharine Susannah Prichard starts with Constable O’Shea, who is riding his horse from Movingunda to Lorgans, together with three half-Aboriginal girls. As a law enforcement officer, he has to remove half-caste children from their families so that they can be placed in state institutions. O’Shea dislikes enforcing this policy and thinks about the bureaucratic hassle of registering all the removed children, as they have to be given new first names and surnames. The local men (some of whom must be the fathers of the half-caste girls) are unwilling to help O’Shea, either by helping to catch them or by lending him a car.
The ride to Lorgans is long and O’Shea needs to ration food and water and to rest during the night. As he prepares a camp fire, he keeps the three girls tied together ...