The Hat

William finds a hat in a secret place. He is keen to wear it and, thinking it is an army hat, keeps it as a sense of national pride. The irony is that the badge on the hat is that of the mounted police who were guilty of great prejudicial acts. The badge of honour becomes a badge of shame. The hat is misinterpreted by visitors to Kuran Station, showing their ignorance of the past despite their self-appointed importance and their ongoing rhetoric about Australian politics.

The hat is also a link to the past. Hidden in a chest it appears that the past was buried. However William in his innocence brings the past to light by finding and wearing the hat. The past crimes committed by its owner become central to the torment of John as he sees the evidence of the crime as a possible loophole to prove ongoing Indigenous occupation of the land at Kuran.

The Hat Quotes

A brief image came to William of his uncle bowed before the objects, as if the room was a hidden chapel. It made no sense, and yet he felt that this was where the real John McIvor was to be found, not in the room of light across the hall. His unease grew stronger, and he turned away. Chapter 19

When William went to bed that night, he hung the cap on the bedpost. He would wear it all the time now, wherever he went. It was a sign of his uncle’s favour, it was good luck. Chapter 20

You bear the mark, boy. (The bunyip to William in his third vision) Chapter 39

‘We dispersed this tribe, we dispersed that tribe. It could mean hundreds of dead, it could mean thousands. But the Native Police operated all up and down Queensland, and they went on “dispersing” for over thirty years. It got so awful that it disturbed white people, even back then.’ Chapter 41

Ruth’s voice was flat. ‘My grandfather was one of them. He slaughtered blacks for a living, and wore his hat while he was doing it.’ Chapter 41

Man on fire

The novel indeed begins and ends in flames, with many other metaphoric mentions of fire throughout the story. In the Prologue, William stands dumbstruck on the back verandah of his family’s farm house, looking out at what is initially described as ‘the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion’. His father is lost in a fire. Oliver Fisher will also be lost as a bush fire swallows him. Finally, John will be consumed by fire after the burning of the bones at the Kuran Station goes wrong.

However the man of fire, reminiscent of an Indigenous magic man or ‘kurdaitcha man’, is constantly trying to point to the past and bring to light the crimes committed against the local populations. The fire man haunts John in his dreams and later it haunts William’s dreams as well. It belongs in their conscience as guilt, like a dreamtime story. Eventually, William is tormented by a series of visions in which the legends his uncle has told him about appear. They are personifications of the myths of white settlement and contain disturbing insinuations of the many things he has not been told. The scene is the culmination of the book’s powerful depiction of the nature of guilt. Finally the central image is revealed, a burning man, standing alone on the plains, as an accusatory symbol whose allegations are profound.

Man on Fire Quotes

The light was orange, not white like the farm houses across the plain. It quivered oddly. And it seemed to be moving. He watched it without real curiosity for some time. Then it flickered and blinked out, and everything up there was night again. (William’s first vision) Chapter 1

Fire is a horrible thing. (Dr Moffat) Chapter 5

‘I’ll tell you this – when my time comes, I’m going on the bonfire.’ (John McIvor) Chapter 10

The instant of hesitation seemed to last forever. And then John saw a monster step out of the smoke. (John looking at a stranded Oliver Fisher) Chapter 21

Fire … a fire burning amidst the stones. A memory chilled William, from months ago. Chapter 22

And then the flame shifted slightly, and resolved into a shape, and finally, irrevocably, he saw. It wasn’t a man carrying a fire, as he’d first thought – it was a man on fire. (William’s vision) Chapter 26

‘I don’t care what you saw!’
‘There was a man on fire!’ William wailed.
John McIvor stared down at his nephew then, and for an instant William saw a stunned recognition in the old man’s eyes. Chapter 26

In the past it had just been dancing images of flames, and a creeping sense of dread. But tonight he had actually seen it – a hand reaching out, wreathed in fire, and then a human shape, all ablaze, and yet standing motionless as it burned. (John dreams in the past) Chapter 27

She lifted her body carefully, still in considerable pain. Both her hands were heavily bandaged, and her face, bright red and peeling, was slathered in ointment. But worse than the pain was the smell of smoke. She couldn’t rid herself of it – it was in her hair, embedded in her skin, and her throat was layered with soot … Epilogue

Ear Ache

As a symbol of William’s neglect, the ear ache shows an ongoing neglect for William’s basic care. It is overlooked by his mother as she is struck by mental and physical health problems which leave her incompetent as a mother. It is dismissed by Dr Moffat who is willing to fabricate a sick note and spend time with John in the Independence League’s plight but not willing to fully investigate the ailment of a young boy. It signifies the isolation that William is living in as a child, thrust in on an adult world. It also symbolises the rottenness of the establishment, coincidentally hidden under the mounted police hat worn by William most of the time. While everything looks fine on the outside, guilt and confusion are always festering away unnoticed.

Ear Ache Quotes

Her arm lifted and she slapped him, her hand catching his right ear in a painful, piercing smack. (William’s mother smacking him) Epilogue

Amidst all this excitement, William’s only concern was his ear. The ache was never acute, but it was ever present, a throb that seemed to penetrate deep within his skull. Chapter 22

His only worry was that his ear was still aching. And he’d become aware of a bad smell. It was fleeting amidst the smoke of campfires and barbecues, but it came and went persistently throughout the day. (William) Chapter 25

‘We’ll go into town. Okay? But not right now. We have to clean you up a bit first. Otherwise a doctor might wonder why you’re all battered and bruised … Do you see?’ Chapter 40

Kuran House

The spectacle of Kuran House itself is one of the central symbols of the text. When William first sees Kuran House ‘his first amazed thought was of palaces and manors in somewhere like England, the stately homes of princes and dukes’. As he stares more closely at the edifice, William realises that the grandeur is no more than a first impression. The house is long past its prime, the garden has become ‘a wilderness of weeds’ and the roof is starting to collapse. The long held icon of colonial culture on the ancient Kuran country was once emblematised in the station’s grand mansion. The house encapsulated the triumph of wealthy land owners. Now, in William’s time, its a decayed legacy of the colonial elite. Built long ago by the Whites, as a haughty reflection of British romanticist pastoral ideals, Kuran House has become a decaying pile, riddled with creaky floorboards, dark corners and even darker secrets, which William is warned has become unsafe for children to explore.

Kuran House Quotes

His new home frowned at him. (William’s first time at Kuran House) Chapter 2

‘But don’t be fooled,’ she went on. ‘It’s been here for one hundred and thirty years, and it’s not falling down any time soon. (Mrs Griffith about Kuran House) Chapter 2

Black men, looking on from the shadows, their expressions impossible to read. Hostile? Fearful? (Picture in John McIvor’s office) Chapter 5

Would everything on his uncle’s property be the same, defaced and decayed and torn apart by the slow creep of branches and roots? If so, then what was the point of exploring any of it? Chapter 8

He could almost feel the great homestead calling out to him, giant and deserted. The thought of it burned. The house should have been his. It should be his, even now. Chapter 9

Ruth laughed again. ‘That was eighteen years ago. He’s got plenty of money now. No – he likes the house this way. So he can show everyone how badly the word has treated him’.
‘So,’ she said, ‘will you fix the pool, when this whole place is yours?’
William went still. There it was. Spoken out loud. Now the attack would come.
Instead, she smiled. ‘You don’t have to worry, you know. I don’t want it. Not the house. Not the property. Not any of it.’ Chapter 32

‘But maybe it shouldn’t survive. I don’t think this piece of land has ever brought anyone much happiness. Not the Aborigines. They just saw it get taken away. Not the Whites. It only made them hated. Not my mother. It cost her a husband, and me a father. I don’t think it’s even made Dad happy. Not really. Just look at him.’ (Ruth to William) Chapter 34