Coonardoo is the moving story of a young Aboriginal woman trained form childhood to be the housekeeper at Wytaliba station and, as such, destined to look after its owner, Hugh Watt. The love between Coonardoo and Hugh, which so shocked its readers when the book was first published in 1929, is never acknowledged and so, degraded and twisted in on itself, destroys not only Coonardoo, but also a community that was once peaceful.

Prichard poses the fantastic concept of love between Aborigines and White people at a time when it was never considered a possibility. She further shows her deep respect for the indigenous people of the time, the role that they played on the stations, the traditions they had and what they had to put up with.

Daring for its time, this tough, uncompromising novel still raises difficult questions about the history of contact between blacks and whites, and its representation in Australian writing.

(from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1961207.Coonardoo).