At his graduation from Edinburgh University in 1885 the promising young medical student William Cameron coughs blood into his handkerchief He is told his only chance to recover from tuberculosis is to leave his beloved Scotland for the hot dry climate of AustraliaIn Melbourne William meets Jeannie Robertson an equally reluctant Scottish immigrant who came to Australia with her fiercely opinionated widowed mother in pursuit of her two goldprospecting brothersThis true story follows William and Jeannie on their respective journeys from Scotland to a new life in Australia Even as they find each other in the Marvellous Melbourne of the 1890s tuberculosis claims William again and he and Jeannie are forced to relocate to the hottest and driest outpost of the colonyMilduraTheir grand investment in the fledgling Mildura Irrigation Scheme turns into a long struggle against drought rabbits and financial ruin that engulfs the entire settlement While Jeannie adjusts to life in a small rural community William fights a secret war against the advance of his disease experimenting with homemade antitoxins on the only research subject available to himhimselfClouds Will Break is a story of perseverance courage family and love set in the widelycontrasting worlds of the Scottish Borders Melbourne and outback Victoria in the second half of the 19th century
