Culloden to Sydney Town is a work of historical fiction. It covers the century from the Lovat family's move from the Scottish Highlands to its arrival in New South Wales. The story begins with the defeat of the Jacobite army at Culloden on the 16th of April 1746, a day of devastating loss for the Highlander cause for freedom from English rule. It is also a day of death and rebirth for this Scottish family. The story ends with the arrival in Sydney Town of two brothers, great grandsons of a fallen Jacobite hero, in 1837.

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Members of the family move to England, Ireland and Persia, where their Highland culture is challenged by prejudice and religious difference. One child joins the British Army and serves in the Americas in the period leading to the War of Independence, struggling between loyalty to the British cause and sympathy for the American quest for freedom.

 

Another family member joins the Royal Navy and travels on the Third Fleet to New South Wales in 1791, challenged by the spectre of an alien force invading other people's lands and the plight of the convicts. It is his own sons who make their way to New South Wales half a century later to establish themselves as pioneers in the colony, one as a teacher, the other as a clergyman.

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The story covers issues of love, loyalty and betrayal, as well as cultural and religious difference. The key characters are inserted into historical events and the lives of real people, including Scottish nobles, American founding fathers and early governors of New South Wales. The novel captures a slice of history marked by exploration, the discovery of new lands and the clash between old and new cultures.