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<title> The lost schoolmaster </title>
A long way from home, far from family and friends George Abbott is forced to roam the new land in a colony not meant for a boy, but for sturdy men. A place for farmers who can make the land turn out produce for the settlers to live of and not for young academic scholars such as him. Malouf has made it very clear that Abbott, although such a person, a teacher, is essential to the settlement as is his character to the story itself, is not supposed to be in Australia and especially not in this distant settlement. He does this by basing his entire character on the fact that he is misplaced and by repeatedly expressing how badly he fits in there.
First there is the issue of fitting in. In an attempt to gain respect in the settlement Abbott pretends to be twenty-six or twenty-seven years old instead of nineteen. This leads to a very lonely life without companions or friends. He has no relatives on this continent and he even lives totally alone in his room, which is adjoined, to the classroom. "Nobody cares for him" (51) as Malouf puts it. To his students he is Sir and their parents call him Mr. Abbott. The boys of his real age in the settlement sees him as an adult but not in the way their fathers are adults and therefore not worthy of their respect. Neither is he young enough to be their friend. Malouf describes it like this: "When he ran into them lounging about the settlement, they would fall silent till he passed, then whisper and guffaw." (45). 
Second, George Abbott, along with four sisters, was born and raised in Britain by their widowed mother. He was educated at the expanse of his godfather Alisdair Robertson, a cousin of his mothers. He always liked being the center of attention as he is a boy with an "eagerness for affection" (48). Therefore it was a devastating experience for him to notice that when he was fifteen "a terrible plainness began to declare itself" and "that people no longer extended the same interest to him" (47). Maybe it is in order to draw attention to himself and to be noticed at least by the pupils if not by any others in the settlement, that he is overly strict with them, even though he feels a kind of loathing coming over him when he beats their fingers with the ruler to punish them. It is obvious that he dos not like beating them, especially from the last sentence in one short paragraph on page 46, "he could have burst into tears himself at the shame of it."
After taking his degree he returned to his benefactor to speak of job opportunities. As he saw it he would not be allowed to follow his heart to Africa and neither could he since he had his family to support. Maybe something in trade would be to his benefactor's satisfaction? So when Alisdair suggests Australia he is startled, he thinks that he is being made fun of, he "was astonished to see his benefactor's face, all rosy-cheeked and expectant, lit up by an expression of droll interest and mischievous amusement." Further down he continues "He had the uneasy feeling that it had just popped into his benefactor's head." (50). 
Third there is the characters own will to be somewhere else, most of all Africa. But if that weren't possible he would at least have like to be back home in Britain with his mother and sisters devoting his full capacity and time to moneymaking within some business. Malouf makes it very clear that Abbott feels this way since he is repeatedly pointing it out in different places from page 46 through 51. "He had never meant to come to Australia, least of all this outlandish part of it" (46) "his life, his real life, lay with the Dark Continent, with Africa" (49). "Africa, he believed, would have tempered his soul to hardness to discover the man in him. No such demands are made upon him here." Here "he never heard an intelligent word from one day to the next" (51).
A long way from home, far from family and friends George Abbott, a lonely misfit longing for another place, another task, a demanding task, is forced to roam the new land in a colony not meant for a boy of nineteen, but for sturdy men. A place for farmers who can make the land turn out produce for the settlers to live of and not for young academic scholars such as him. "He grew breathless" as he "felt the whole gray mass of it come down upon him." (50)
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