Lady Sarah Ashley is an English aristocrat. In the story, she leaves England in 1938 and travels to Australia to follow her husband, Maitland who is in Australia with the intention of selling his cattle station, Faraway Downs. However, she discovers that her husband was murdered when she arrives at the cattle. In addition, a half-aboriginal little boy, Nullah tells her that the Faraway downs’ manager, Neil Fletcher try to drive the cattle onto Carney’s land. Then, she fires Flecther and decides to run the cattle station herself.
Lady Sarah Ashley is a very brave and courageous woman. In the story, she travels from England to Australia alone. Her husband sends an independent cattle drover, called “Drover” to transport her to Faraway Downs. When arrives at Faraway Downs, Drover finds something that is abnormal and goes out from the truck to investigate. Drover asks Sarah Ashley to stay in the truck. But she refuses to follow the instructions. She straight away goes into the house of the Faraway Downs and finds that her husband was dead. Besides that, Nullah tries to prove that Fletcher is a liar by showing Sarah that Fletcher breaks the windmill. As a result, Fletcher mistreats him and threatens his mother violently. Sarah stops Fletcher by hit his face with her stick.
She is also responsible to her husband. When her husband was dead and she finds that Fletcher is trying to gain control of faraway Downs, she decides to run the Faraway Downs herself in order to save Faraway Downs from bankruptcy. She continues her husband’s plan which her husband failed to do it before passed away. She tries to sell 1500 head of cattle to Darwin. She persuades Drover to help her to take the cattle to Darwin. Finally, Drover promises her to drive the cattle to the Darwin after gathers 7 good riders.
Lady Sarah Ashley does not give up easily. In the beginning of the story, she doesn’t know how to ride a horse. But she has to ride horse in order to deliver the cattle to the Darwin. She tries to learn and practice riding the horse with her determination and finally she can ride horse herself. Moreover, Sarah gathers with Drover, Nullah and 5 riders to set out their journey to sell the cattle to the military. In the process, they face a lot of troubles that inhibit them to deliver the cattle to Darwin. For example, Carney’s men set fires to make the cattle stampede. Sarah doesn’t give up quickly. She with the other riders try to stop the cattle from charging over a cliff. Furthermore, Carney’s men also poison the water sources along the cattle-drive route, so they do not have water to drink and for the cattle. Drover wants to give up because travels to next pond needs 5 days while the Kuraman where they can get the water is a Never Never land. But Sarah asks him to try. In the end, they drive the cattle through the Never Never land with the help of King George and deliver the cattle to Darwin successfully.
Lastly, Lady Sarah Ashley is a very nice person. She nurtures and protects Nullah even though she is not naturally maternal. She learns to love Nullah as her own child. She goes beyond loving an individual boy and challenges the whole social system that hypocritically and ostracises the half-caste. When Nullah is captured by the authorities and sent to live on Mission Island with the rest of the half-Aboriginal children, Sarah vows to save him. She begins working as a radio operator in Darwin during the escalation of World War 2 to secure his return. She also prepares to sell Faraway Downs to Fletcher, believing that it will aid her in gaining Nullah back.
In the end of the story, Drover saves Nullah and the children from the Mission Island. When reaches Darwin, Nullah plays his harmonica with the tune of “Over the Rainbow” and attracts Lady Sarah Ashley who prepares to evacuate. Fletcher is killed by King George when he tries to shoot Nullah. Lady Sarah, Drover and Nullah return to Faraway Downs. On the way, Lady Sarah embraces Nullah and lets him go walkabout with his grandfather.
