"She's Only a Colonial, You See" The Australian Girl in the English Girls' School Story, 1909-1920

Prejudice against the Australian girls reveals the deeper anxieties within English society about both the state of their nation at home and the effects of life in the colonies on those who go to Australia as settlers or administrators. A concern about whether the girls still qualify as ‘ladies’ is a major theme in the novels. One of the other main effects on the girls involves family separation and reunion.