Escape from Cockatoo Island

My Australian Story Series

Author: Yvette Poshoglian

Book 30 in the My Australian Story series

Pages: 208

Published: 2013

Age: 9+

I am in the middle of Sydney Harbour, stuck on this place the masters call Cockatoo Island . . . I am here because I am an orphan, but I cannot help feeling like I have been sent here for doing something wrong.

It is 1879 and life in the Biloela Industrial School is tough for eleven-year-old Olivia Markham. Her windswept days are filled with sewing, washing, and avoiding the girls from the Reformatory School. Sydney is rapidly growing and modernising, but Olivia can only imagine what life is like beyond the shores of Cockatoo Island. She dreams of freedom, friendship and, above all, family. Can she ever escape?

About the My Australian Story Series

Reading age: 9+ years

My Australian Story is a series of historical novels written by various authors. Each book is written in the form of a fictional diary of a young person living during an important event or significant time period in Australian history.