stick as gun (simile)
"...and she runs out, points a stick at the birds as though it were a gun."
This simile shows the drover's wife's ingenuity, but the language also establishes her as a force to be reckoned with. The image of the gun formed in the reader's mind connotes her strength and tenaciousness. While her husband is away she has to defend herself, her family, and her property at all costs and even though she does not seem to actually have a gun, this simile allows us to associate her with defense and courage.
castles in the air (metaphor)
"As a girl she built the usual castles in the air." This is a common metaphor, but what it does is imply that the drover's wife had fantastical, unrealistic dreams that have since vanished. Building a castle in the air is obviously impossible, and this metaphor effectively indicates that her wishes for another life are doomed.
the land-as-woman (metaphor)
Kay Shaffer, one of the most prominent scholars of Australian literature (particularly the literature of the Australian bush), sees the land as a metaphor for woman. She writes "[the land] functions as a metaphor for woman—as in father sky to mother earth, colonial master to the plains of promise, native son to the barren bush." The bush is desirable, wild, and hard to tame. The drover's wife similarly has a "hard" facade, but is vulnerable underneath. She is not easy on her children, but ultimately she nurtures and sustains them, as the bush does for its native animals and people. The bush also appears sparse and monotonous, yet it teems with life and vibrancy (snakes, bullocks, storms, kangaroos, aborigines); the drover's wife appears stoic and simple, but beneath her worn exterior her mind teems with memories, wishes, and woes. There is richness beyond the surface of both the bush and the woman if one is willing to probe more deeply.
