How did Kate Grenville portray the life of a British convict in The Secret River?

In The Secret River (2005), Kate Grenville portrays the life of a British convict through the character of William Thornhill, an impoverished waterman from the Thames who is transported to Australia for theft.1

Grenville depicts the trajectory of a man who, after being pardoned, attempts to establish a new life by settling a plot of land in the Australian bush. The novel explores the tension between his desire to claim and work "his" corner of the colony and the reality of the land's existing occupation by the Darug, an Aboriginal people. Through Thornhill’s experiences, Grenville examines the complexities of colonial identity, the struggle for survival, and the moral consequences of displacement in early 19th-century Australia.1