Meggy stepped gingerly down the gangplank, her head wrapped in a scarf, her hair hidden amongst the few meagre possessions she had in her satchel.

They were all around her, the women who had stolen her dignity. In front and behind. She stepped onto the gangplank and took hold of the rail. A hand gripped her scarf, and tore from her scalp.

The crowd, who were gathered on the Burns Philip Wharf, went silent. The women whispered and the men stared.

"You ain't hidin' what ya really are, Meggy." Nick nipped at her ear as he whispered the words. He held the scarf out in front of her. Meggy tried to reach for it but he held it out of her reach and dropped it into the water.

The crowd parted as she stepped off the gangway and moved toward them.

Meggy walked, she did not look at their faces, but held her head high.

She walked, forward, along the pier, toward the street and the buildings.

Meggy walked, with her satchel and her hair.

She wandered the streets, followed the tram tracks, beyond a huge fig tree and a public house whose name she could not read. Meggy moved without thinking, one step at a time. She let her feet take her until she found herself on the corner of a street that felt vaguely familiar. Meggy stopped, looked at the buildings, the houses with their galvanized iron rooves, shop front's displaying dragons and writing she had never seen before. A public house stood on the corner. She moved forward, stepped onto the verandah and as she passed through the door, Meggy sensed she was home.

She stayed a moment, on the darkened threshold and closed her eyes.

"We ain't open, love."

Meggy opened her eyes and looked around. A man was rolling a keg out from behind the bar. He stopped, took a cloth from the counter and wiped his hands. He came toward her, stared knowingly at her hacked hair and called over his shoulder. "Bee!"

His face was round and pleasant, his dark hair thinning.

Meggy's lip quivered. "I have nowhere tae...."

He stopped her words with a knowing nod. "Beatrice!" he called again.

As he took the satchel from Meggy's hand a thin woman with thick brown hair came down the stairs. "Yeah, Bill did you call me?"

Bill nodded. He tilted his head at Meggy. "Looks like we got another. Just off the boat I'd say."

"Jesus, Mother and Joseph!" Beatrice gasped.

"Bee'll take care of you," he said.

"I cannae pay," Meggy whispered.

Bill smiled sympathetically. "Plenty of time for that but not while you look like ya do."

Meggy nodded her understanding. Bill held her satchel out to Beatrice and said, "Get her settled, Bee."

Beatrice came forward, smiled and wrapped her arm around Meggy's shoulders. "How about a nice hot bath, sweetie?"

*

"God, girl what have they done to you?"

Meggy couldn't answer. She tried but the words wouldn't come.

Beatrice shook her head. "Bastards the lot of them, I bet." She poured the last bucket of water into the tub, squatted down and swirled her hand to mix the hot with the cold.

"It's not real hot, but better than nothin'." She looked up to see Meggy standing huddled in the corner, tears rolling down her face. Beatrice stood, put her hands firmly on her hips and her weight on one leg. "What's your name?"

Wiping the palms of her hands down her face, Meggy said, "Me...Megg...y."

"Well, Meggy. You're gonna have to get tougher than this, girl, if you've any hope of surviving in this hell hole."

Meggy gasped, tried to stop the tears and strained to speak.

Letting her hands fall at her sides, Beatrice stepped toward her. "I know how it is. Arrived pretty much the same way myself."

Strengthened by Bee's words Meggy looked at her fully for the first time. She was tall and thin, too slim. Her face just betrayed her age. Her brown hair, hanging loose around her shoulders, softened the lines near her eyes.

Beatrice reached out and touched Meggy's tattered locks. "It won't take long to grow." She tilted her head and smirked. "That's one thing them stupid so-called ladies forget. It always grows back and it'll be their men who'll be the first to notice and come running." She took a breath and asked, "That is why they cut it?"

Meggy covered her face and gasped.

Beatrice frowned, cocked her head some more and mused, "You weren't sellin' your wares on board, were you?" Meggy's sobs were enough to let Beatrice know this was not the case so she asked, "Were you raped? My God, they raped you, the bastards! I'm sorry. I thought you were a working girl and that's why you came here. It's the constable you need, love, not a public house."

Meggy grappled with the words caught in her throat. "Nae... no."

Beatrice nodded. "You better get in this tub before it gets colder than it is. We'll talk some more later."

Rain thundered down as Beatrice placed the hot cup of tea on the table in front of Meggy. "Jeeze this weather won't let up. They say it's never rained like this before. Washed out the rail it has." Beatrice sat opposite and took a mouthful of tea. She leaned back in her chair, rolled a cigarette, took a drag, and then blew the smoke toward the ceiling. "Well, Meg, out with it. I've got to know what to do with you." She paused. "Are you a working girl or not?"

Meggy nodded. "Though I dinnae want ta be anymore." She dragged in a breath to stop from crying. "It's why I came to Australia. To change me life."

"I know, love." Beatrice smiled forlornly and murmured, "But it just follows ya somehow." She studied a spot on the wall, took another sip of her tea, and then looked more intently at Meggy. "You're a pretty girl. That bruise won't take long to go and we'll be able to neaten your hair some. There's plenty of money to be made. The men around here are always keen for the company of a white woman. There's more Chinese than whites in the business and you'll get a handful of regulars."

Thunder rumbled and rain pelted down. The sound as it hit the corrugated iron roof drowned out Beatrice's words. She drew on her cigarette. "I'll place you with Missus Gray. She lets rooms for girls like us, though the works here, never there." Beatrice eyed Meggy to see that she understood. She sneered, "Missus Gray's a bitch mind. Makes out we're all scum but it don't stop her from taking our money." Beatrice screwed up her face. "It's what you want isn't it? That is why you came here?"

Meg took a deep breath and exhaled. "I dinnae have much choice. Any chance of a new life went out the door a week ago." She bit on her lip to hold more tears back. The tight knot in her throat and the burning sensation in her nostrils turned to anger. "I'm nae really a whore. Not in here." She banged her fist against her chest. "I had no other way to survive!" She gasped. "Me Ma got sick and there was no one." Meggy, beaten, placed her hands in her lap and fiddled with the fabric of her skirt. "They'd do the same if put in my place, if it meant the difference between livin' and dyin'."

Beatrice leaned across the table, tilted Meg's face upwards and smiled. "I ain't ever met a woman who willing sold herself for the fun of it. I bet half the snooty ladies don't skip happily to their man's bed every night. So, in my view they're no different. They just whore for one man and not many." She grinned. "We have the advantage, Meg. If our partner ain't nice enough, adequate or he's too smelly, we only have to put up with him the once or every now and then." She paused, shook her head and added, "Imagine a life time of it."

Meggy tittered. "You're right, Bee. I need tae hold my head up din I?"

Beatrice flopped back in her seat. "Too right. We're all women and we all whore to get what we want. Husband and children or money, whatever gives us a life. At least that's how I look at it. The difference is we ain't stuck married to some pompous bastard we don't love or beats the crap out of us." She leaned back, cradled her teacup against her chest and gazed at the wall as she whispered, "Cause believe me, I've been there too."

Poor Meggy, I was really hoping things would change for her.

Photos - Top - Burns Philip Wharf - Cairns 1890s queenslandrail.com

Middle - the-big-fig-tree-in-abbott-street-cairns-qld-1930s - some of these trees still stand. Here's a view of Cairns in 1897. Copyright - qalbum.archives.qld.gov

2nd bottom - Writers in London.com

Bottom - Les_Lorettes -  Wikipedia