Novels in English. Australian writers, 1945- . Special subjects: Reibey, Mary, 1777-1855. Texts (ANB/PRECIS SIN 0052787) Mary Reibey came to Sydney in1792, a fourteen-year-old convict girl. This novel is her story, based, as far as records reveal, on fact. It portrays thelusty, bawdy days of early, rum-sodden and vice-ridden Sydney, the stranglehold the Rum Corps had on the colony, and the efforts of the Governors to restore order.