She loses her family in the Black Thursday bushfires of 1851 and winds up in the Eureka Rebellion.

[3] The Bulletin said "Timms has his history, and his highflown romance, and his Arlene; and if one finds his Mr. and Mrs. Gubby, said on the dustjacket to be old favorites from earlier novels, quite unbearable in their homely Cockney humor, one must not forget that it is through their voices (however unbearable) that Mr. Timms expresses another strong-point of his novels —their patriotism.

"[4] The Daily Advertiser said "there is one grave fault to the book... the author's handling of the historical background.

His style and sense of action, his exuberant delight with characters plucked straight from the corncob, make him a "natural" for Australian-style wild westerns.

"[6] The novel was serialised for radio in 1955, read out in episodes by Lyndall Barbour.