Abstract
During the Second World War (1939–1945), Western Australian author Rix Weaver published her New Holland trilogy comprising Behold, New Holland! (1940), New Holland Heritage (1941) and Beyond Cooralong (1945). These novels were highly popular at the time of publication, serialised in magazines and on radio and reportedly taught in local high schools. Though published in the 1940s, these novels are of significant cultural importance because they provide a relatively rare historical depiction of the establishment and development of the Swan River colony (later known as Perth) from 1830. Even more unusual is the emphasis on the lives of women in these works. Arguably Weaver’s trilogy contains a dual narrative, one devoted to the early colonisation of Western Australia between 1830 and the 1880s while the other personalises the settlement stories through her heroines Jane Mabie and her daughter Jennifer in conjunction with their families. Through the historically grounded romantic stories of Jane and Jennifer, the experiences of women are depicted within early settler history. In this article, we read Weaver’s trilogy as “romantic historical fiction” (Teo & Fresno-Calleja, 2025) where the trilogy format calls into question the kinds of endings and closures given to their heroines. Overall, we argue that Weaver’s context while writing, the trilogy format and historical setting contribute to the individual and collective, not always happy, ending(s) of these novels.