Australia

Introduction to the character - Lady Sarah Ashley:

Australia is the story of Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman), a strong willed, even overbearing aristocrat not at all pleased with her husband's involvement and absorption by Far Away Downs, a cattle station in the northern territory of Australia. Determined to solve her financial problems by forcing the sale of the foreign holding, Lady Ashley decides to travel to force the issue when her husband continues qualifying and delaying...

Her arrival in Australia is not what she expected. The trusted agent her husband dispatched to retrieve her is The Drover, (Hugh Jackman). Their first meeting involves the Drover beating an opponent in a barroom brawl with Lady Ashley's precious matching Mediterranean blue luggage, sparking a shower of silken unmentionables in front of the "salt of the earth" types. "Welcome to Australia."

Her arrival at Far Away Downs is watched with great interest by Nullah (Brandon Walters), a half-caste boy. Nullah is the son of Daisy (Ursula Yovich), an aboriginal girl, and Neil Fletcher (David Wenham), the station manager. Nullah is the grandson of King George (David Gulpilil), a powerful Gullah or Medicine Man.

Lady Ashley storms into the house, ready to address every indignity that she has suffered since leaving England, only to find her husband dead, killed by a glass tipped spear, ostensibly by King George. Suddenly her world is turned upside down and she is made aware of the true ways of the world. Fletcher paints her a picture of a camp on the verge of collapse, and the offer by King Carney (Bryan Brown) for a sixth value of the land,godsend.He sees Lady Ashley as a helpless female, and a walking paycheck.

Lady Boss has the money to complete her husband's dream after load the fat cheeky bull first. They have broken King Carney's monopoly. She can reinvest in Far Away Downs. But she needs a manager. And Drover is a drover. He likes the freedom; he works on percentage, and no man is his boss.

An added complication; Nullah is a half-caste, a "creamy". Australia's policy is that such children were to be taken from their aboriginal mothers and raised by the church so that they could be westernized, married to white citizens, and "Breed the black out of them."This barbaric practice, detailed in the excellent and underappreciated film, Rabbit Proof Fence, continued until 1973. The children of this policy are called "The Stolen Generations."Lady Boss has no intention of letting this happen to Nullah, even to selling Far Away Downs in exchange for King Carney's protection of the boy. But when Drover agrees to be her manager, she is liberated, her life is redefined, and so is her relationship with Drover. A strange and wonderful family begins to emerge, Drover, Lady Boss, and Nullah.

Character Description of Lady Sarah Ashley:

Lady Ashley holds the pride of being a British lady. The way she speaks and the way she wears make her looks elegant and pretty. She is a mesmerizing lady with curly brown hair. She totally looks like those types of enchanting girls which require quite a long time to adapt to a new environment. But, things never turn out they way you think they will and Lady Ashley proves that she can adapt to the new surrounding pretty well.

Lady Ashley is a caring and loving woman. This can be seemed when she comforts Nullah by singing “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz. She loves and cares about Nullah. She never discriminate Nullah as a half cast and she hates people who discriminate half cast like Nullah. She chooses to trust Nullah more than the others and that is one of the reasons causing her to stand in the opposite direction with Fletcher. She does try her very best to protect Nullah from the threatening of Fletcher and she even think of giving up Far Away Downs just to protect Nullah from being taken away by the people as for them, half cast boy doesn’t belong to Australia.

She is a tough lady too. Lady Ashley is tough enough to accept the death of her husband. The death of her husband doesn’t become the obstacle for her life. In fact, she even takes up the challenge to continue her husband cattle business. In addition, she is brave enough to smash Fletcher by using the riding crop when he tries to hit Nullah. Furthermore, she even goes droving. Droving is a guy job and Lady Ashley dares to pick up the challenge just to finish the works that her husband hasn’t finish. In the way of droving, she even decides to pass through the Nevernever Land which no one knows what is in the other end. Yet, Lady Ashley still determined enough to go through the whole adventure even they face a lot of difficulties and obstacles. As for her, no one can stop her from finishing the mission- load the fat cheeky bull into the big metal ship.

Besides that, she is a responsible woman who bears the responsibility of taking care all the cattle business left by her husband. Knowing that she has the duty to make her husband’s cattle business afloat, she steps into the business and reinvest in Far Away Downs. She employs the drover as her manager and therefore all her mission accomplished when she drove all the bull into the ship, making what seems impossible become possible.

Other than that, Lady Ashley is a woman who never gives up easily. Although they face a lot of obstacles in the whole droving journey but she insists that she wants to finish the journey until she success to bring all the 1,500 cattle to the town area. For example, before they get to pass through the Nevernever Land, there is a place where they cannot find clean water and everyone is thirsty and tired at that moment. Even the Drover plan to give up but Lady Ashley insists to use Nevernever Land so that they can reach the town faster. Fortunately, King George appears and they succeed to reach Darwin safely.

Last but not least, she loves Nullah a lot. When Nullah said he needs to leave for a walkabout with King George in order to become a man, she is very sad and insists that Nullah cannot leave her as they already become a family. She even quarrels with the Drover just because Nullah is leaving. After Nullah had been sent to Mission Island, she misses Nullah so much and even plans to pay him a visit before the Japanese army attacks Australia. Fortunately, Nullah is saved by the Drover and at last three of them pass through a very happy and peaceful life until Nullah goes off walkabout…