The Hon. Michael Fitzhubert

The character of Michael Fitzhubert plays a  big role in the development of the novel. He is a young, wealthy English man who, though the course of the novel, develops and changes. We are first introduced to him just before the girls disappear.  He is on a picnic with his aunt and uncle and is described as “a slender fair youth – or very young man.”

One of the ways we see  Michael grow in the novel is when he tells his uncle that a reason he does not like someone is because of their strong English heritage, “It’s entirely my fault that I find Miss Sprack – how can I express it – too English”. This shows that he is gradually changing and becoming a different man, that is, he is becoming an  Australian.

His obsession for Miranda is shown when he has an illusion of her in a clamshell, “…a girl in a white dress was standing beside a giant clamshell that served as a bird’s bath…”  Here he  is comparing Miranda to the Roman goddess, Venus, from the painting “The Birth of Venus” by Botticelli. In Roman Mythology Venus was associated with love, lust and beauty.  The painting “The Birth of Venus” shows purity, innocence and beauty, all of which Miranda was associated with. Towards the end of his illusion, she turns into a white swan, “he was almost within touching distance of her muslin skirt when they became the faintly quivering wings of a white swan...” This  displays his fixation with her and he has numerous dreams and more illusions of her though the course of the book.  Michael slowly develops an obsession and determination to find her.

At the end of the novel  we find that Michael has left to become a jackaroo (who was a young or inexperienced stockman or farm hand on a sheep or cattle station) near where Miranda lived before her disappearance.

Michael Fitzhubert and Albert Crundall, his coach man, are very close. Michael believes that Albert was very knowledgeable as he knew about the Australia bush and how to survive in it, “Albert’s worldly wisdom was unending. Michael was filled with admiration”. Their friendship is strange as they are the opposite of each other but Albert brings out the best in Michael and vice versa.