Rabbit-Proof Fence (film) - Plot

Plot

Set in Western Australia during the 1930s, the film begins in the remote town of Jigalong where three children live with their mother and grandmother. They are the sisters, 14-year-old Molly Craig and 8-year-old Daisy Kadibil, and their 10-year-old cousin Gracie Fields. The town lies along the northern part of Australia's rabbit-proof fence, which runs for several thousand miles.

Thousands of miles away, the 'protector' of Western Australian Aborigines, A. O. Neville, signs an order to relocate the three girls to his re-education camp. The children are referred to by Neville as "half-castes", because they have one white and one aboriginal parent. Neville's reasoning is portrayed as being that the Aboriginal peoples of Australia are a danger to themselves, and that the "half-castes" must be bred out of existence. He plans to place them in a camp where they, along with all half-castes of that age range, will grow up. They will then presumably become labourers and servants to white families, regarded as a 'good' situation for them in life. Eventually if they marry, it will be to white people and thus the Aboriginal 'blood' is less and less. As such, the children are forcibly taken from Jigalong and taken to camp at the Moore River Settlement, which is in the south.

Molly, Gracie, and Daisy decide to escape the camp and walk back home to Jigalong. An Aboriginal tracker, Moodoo, is called in to find them. However, the girls are well trained in disguising their tracks. They evade Moodoo several times, receiving aid from strangers in the harsh Australian country they travel. They eventually find the rabbit-proof fence, knowing that they can follow it north to Jigalong. Neville soon figures out their strategy and sends Moodoo and a local constable, Riggs, after them. Although he is an experienced tracker, Moodoo is unable to find them.

Neville spreads word that Gracie's mother is waiting for her in the town of Wiluna. The information finds its way to an Aboriginal traveller who 'helps' the girls. He tells Gracie about her mother and that they can get to Wiluna by train, causing her to break off from the group and attempt to catch a train to Wiluna. Molly and Daisy soon walk after her, finding her at a train station. They are not reunited, however, as Riggs appears and Gracie is re-captured. The betrayal is revealed by the Constable, who tells the man that he will receive a shilling for his help. Knowing they are powerless to aid her, Molly and Daisy continue on. In the end, after a harsh long journey the two sisters make it home and go into hiding in the desert with their mother and grandmother.

The epilogue of the film shows recent footage of Molly and Daisy. Molly explains that Gracie has died and that she never returned to Jigalong. Molly also tells us of her own two daughters and that the three of them were taken from Jigalong back to Moore River. She managed to escape with one daughter, Annabelle, and once again, she walked the length of the fence back home. However, when Annabelle was 3 years old, she was taken away again and Molly never saw her again. In closing, Molly says that she and Daisy "... are never going back to that place."