The Lieutenant:
Written by: Kate Grenville
Narrated by: Nicholas
Bell
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Time: 7 Hours 3 Minutes
In 1787 Lieutenant Daniel Rooke sets sail
from Portsmouth with the First Fleet and its cargo of convicts, destined for
New South Wales.
As a young officer and a man of science, the shy and
quiet Rooke is full of anticipation about the natural wonders he might discover
in this strange land on the other side of the world.
After the fleet
arrives in Port Jackson, Rooke sets up camp on a rocky and isolated point, and starts his work of astronomy and navigation. It's
not too long before some of the Aboriginal people who live around the harbour pay him a visit.
One of them, a
girl named Tagaran, starts to teach him her own
language. But her lessons and their friendship are interrupted when Rooke is
given an order that will change his life forever.
Inspired by the 1790 notebooks of William Dawes in
which he recorded his conversations with a young Gadigal
woman, The Lieutenant is a story about a man discovering his true self
in extraordinary circumstances.