Where did Naomi Watts' character come from?

I did not like this adaptation much at all. I haven't read Our Sunshine yet, does anyone know if the script follows that well? It certainly doesn't follow The True HIstory of the Kelly Gang by Carey, and that seems to be pretty accurate since it follows letters that Ned Kelly wrote (or dictated) himself.

Is Naomi Watts' character based on any real person? I loved Mary (I think that was her name, it's been forever since I read the book), whom Ned is in love with in the book. She was one of my favorite characters, and she ends up having Ned's daughter, so she's fairly important. How could they just leave her out?

I also wish that they had gone into Ned's childhood a little more. There were such unfortunate circumstances that made him into who he was. This made up more than half the book, yet was only about one minute in the movie.

I understand that a movie cannot be completely accurate, but it would have been so much better if it had been based on Carey's book. If they were going to make the movie, they should've waited until they could get the rights for that and made a better, more compelling and story driven movie.

Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time.
American History x