A Larrikin in the Blood

John Avery was aged twenty-four with a wife and young child when he was arrested for stealing a grey mare, his death sentence commuted to life transportation. After twenty years in Van Diemen's Land he was charged with sheep stealing and sentenced to fourteen years on Sarah Island. From a small Hampshire village in 1750s England to 1870s boom-town Melbourne, here are the stories of six women whose lives were impacted by the choices made by John Avery, my four times great grandfather. This is a f