"She never realised that she knew so little about herself, not even her name or family, or even what she looked like now that she was dressed as a girl. ... I know myself now, she thought. I can hold up a stagecoach and catch a possum and cook a pigeon pie so good the pigeon would have proudly given up its feathers for it. I know I can survive an attack by drunken men ... I can find a good life for myself. I just don't know where or what it will be."
Tigg needs money to pay the woman who was given charge of her many years ago. Ma Murphy, a 'baby farmer' was paid enough money to keep her when Tigg was small but when the money stopped coming in she took the four children in her care to the gold diggings with a plan to open a tavern. Sadly, three of these children died but young Tigg survived. In the opening scene Tigg is disguised as a boy and she holds up a stagecoach demanding money from the travellers. During the altercation she is shot in the shoulder. She manages to get back to Ma Murphy but Tigg knows she is now wanted by the police so she needs to leave and hide. She joins a young Chinese man who is escorting a large group of 'Celestials' who are travelling from Robe in South Australia to the Victorian Goldfields. She joins the group at the South Australian border. The journey is anticipated to take three to six weeks.
I loved all the refences to food in this book especially near the end when Tigg makes two new friends in Goulburn. It was also fascinating to read about all the ways Tigg used her bush survival skills, taught to her by a young indigenous woman, to find food, shelter and even make a possum cloak while she was hiding out in the bush. There are some memorable human characters in this story such as Henry Lau who escorts her on the Long Walk, but I also loved her horse named Bucephalus. It was fortuitous that 'Gentleman Once' who taught Tigg to read and write also gave her a book entitled 'Advice for a Young Lady in the Colonies'. I laughed when Tigg remembered and perhaps misunderstood some of the 'advice' from this book.
Tigg is an orphan but her hardships and life circumstance have made her very canny especially with 'reading people' and also with money. It was comforting to read she kept her stash of money close to her body and that she also had even more money hidden in the bush. Her dream of a family, a home, comfort and food gave me hope that Jackie French was taking me on a story journey with a satisfying happy ending. Also thank goodness Jackie French allowed Tigg to take a bath every now and again - I always worry when someone has no food, no bed, no shelter, has to contend with wild weather but even more I desperately wanted Tigg to be able to feel clean.
The back notes in this book are essential reading - especially after you finish this novel - because the give a historical context to these events of 1800s Australia.
Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger has been short listed for our 2025 CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) Younger Readers book award. I will confess that while I did adore many of Jackie French's early books her more recent titles have not quite resonated with me - but all of that has now changed. Jackie French, when writing her best books, skillfully blends masses of history research into a terrific story. At no time does this book about Tigg feel like a history lesson but of course that is exactly what it is. For example I had no idea about the Long Walk nor about the way the Chinese people set up market gardens in remote rural Australia. Sadly, I did know about 'baby farming' because decades ago I read another fiction book based on this gruesome practice - Mama's Babies by Gary Crew (2002). My only tiny criticism (echoed by the Reading Time reviewer) is that there are lots of story threads in this book and at times I did find it difficult to keep track of all the characters - a family tree for Tigg might have been helpful.
I loved this description of Tigg's first ever hug:
"Tigg hesitated. She'd never been hugged before. She'd always thought it looked uncomfortable. She tentatively put her own arms around his waist. A hug didn't feel at all like being imprisoned in chains. It just felt warm and safe ... She stepped back after a while, wishing Advice for a Young Lady in the Colonies had told her how long a father-daughter hug should last for."
Author webpage blurb: The year is 1859 and the goldfields are filled with diggers – and danger! Orphaned twelve-year-old Tigg is the Bandicoot Bushranger, the youngest bushranger on the Ballarat goldfields in 1859. When a robbery goes wrong, Tigg must flee in disguise as one of the tens of thousands of Chinese men and boys braving heat, thirst, starvation and murderous attacks on the long road from Robe in South Australia to the goldfields in Victoria. But even further danger threatens. Who has offered a large sum of money for Tigg's capture? And is the mysterious Henry Lau a friend or enemy? To be safe, Tigg must solve the greatest mystery of all. Who is Tigg?
The 2025 CBCA Younger Readers short list has really disappointed me. I have previously mentioned six other titles which I think better match the judging criteria for this category.
In my personal opinion there are only two books in this selection that are worthy of our prestigious National Award -
Laughter is the Best Ending and now I add Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger. To and Fro is a heartfelt personal story of identity and belonging but the silly additions of 'toilet humour' really distracted from this story for me. Aggie Flea has eight references to 'farts and farting' and Saskia Spark-Lee is a light read - perfect for newly independent readers but not sufficient depth of caliber for our award (again this is just my personal opinion).
Jackie French has talked about bushrangers in previous books such as this fairly recent one which I also really enjoyed:
Other Jackie French stories about bushrangers are Dancing with Ben Hall; The Night they Stormed Eureka; The Horse who bit a Bushranger; and The Secret of the Black Bushranger.
In my former library I really enjoyed exploring bushranger picture books with my Grade Five groups as a way to extend their class study of our Australian Gold Rush era. Here are a few you could share with a group in your school library (note these are all are now out of print but are sure to be found in well stocked collections). We also explored lots of materials about Ned Kelly of course.
My own favourites, among the enormous number of books by
Jackie French (Our
IBBY Australia Hans Christian Andersen nominee in 2008) are Tajore Arkle; The Book of Unicorns (short stories); A Waltz for Matilda; The Shaggy Gully Times; The Tomorrow Book;
Christmas Always comes; and Diary of a Wombat.
