The Last of the Bonegilla Girls covers 64 years from 1954 when four young women of different nationalities meet at the Bonegilla migrant camp in Victoria. Frances Burley is the Camp Director’s daughter who dreams of travelling to the places the migrants have just fled. Surrounded by a multicultural mix of families, she befriends Elizabeta Schmidt from Hungary, Illiana Agnoli from Italy, and Greek Vasiliki Mitropoulos when she decides to become their English teacher.

Frances is smitten with Illiana’s brother, Massimo, when she is hit on the head by his soccer ball. Vasiliki takes a shine to Frances’s brother, Tom, at the migrant hall dance. The four girls lives’ become intertwined.

Trauma from the war years in Germany overshadows the Schmidt family and threatens to overwhelm them as they are abruptly confronted by their past when Berta’s assaulter arrives at the camp. Further tragedy occurs when Elizabeta’s sister Louisa gets drastically ill.

The small group’s lives continue to intersect over time as they are sent to different parts of the country following their fathers’ work. Heartbreaks occur, life shattering events unfold for some, and potentially devastating secrets are taken to the grave by others. Chronic illness, untimely death, torrid love affairs and secret liaisons occur amongst happy marriages, financial prosperity, multiple children and friendship reunions. The womens’ backgrounds shape and influence their prospects.

While this novel covers the transition from girls to women, there were skips in time, from a few months in some places to over 20 years in others. I pined for these missing years wanting the details of the narrative chasm to be more adequately filled.

Reviewed by Esther Perry