Question:

What is the history of literature in Australia?

Dingoes about

Dingoes are not native to Australia but they were introduced to it so long ago that they might as well be. Some dingoes have been domesticated, but most are wild. People do not generally like dingoes because they go after sheep and cattle although they have helped by killing small (or large) rodents. Since they have been introduced to Australia, the number of marsupial wolves and Tasmanian devils have dropped to almost nothing while on Tasmania they still thrive. This may be because the dingo actually hunts them or just because there is less prey. Whatever the reason, though, they are quickly becoming extinct on the mainland. Dingoes look like wild dogs and can be dark brown, reddish or black, and sometimes they have spots, lop ears and upswept tails. They have been known to go after sheep, cattle, other dingoes intruding on their territory, and small rodents, such as rabbits, Tasmanian devils, and marsupial wolves. Sometimes, they will even go after kangaroos.

Australian Literature: 19th Century

Early attempts at producing literary works in Australia were rather gentrified, written in the English style for an English audience. A good example is W. C. Wentworth's 'Australasia, an Ode' (1823), which is sadlyimitative. During the next few decades Australian writers began to work within their environment, increasingly finding inspiration in their homeland, with the interpretive nature poetry of Charles Harpur (1813–68) and Henry Kendall (1839–82) and with the novels of Henry Kingsley (brother of Charles Kingsley), who wrote about pioneer life.

The bush ballad, begun by Adam Lindsay Gordon, flowered in the work of Henry Lawson (1867–1922) and A. B. (“Banjo”) Paterson (1864–1941), whose 'Man from Snowy River and Other Verses' (1895) includes the famous song “Waltzing Matilda.” Convict life was depicted in Henry Savery´s Quintus Servinton (1830), but it was not until almost a century after the first prisoners arrived that they received their due, in Marcus Clarke´s classic account of life in a penal colony, 'For the Term of His Natural Life' (1874). Less powerful, but true to life in the bush, were the novels of Rolfe Boldrewood (pseud. of Thomas A. Browne) and James Tucker, whose 'Ralph Rashleigh '(1844) was the first book to focus on Australia´s unique combination of prison life, aborigines, and bushrangers.

Other important 19th-century novelists were Miles Franklin (1879–1954), whose 'My Brilliant Career' (1901) is often designated the first authentically Australian novel, and diarist-novelist Tom Collins (pseud. of Joseph Furphy, 1843–1912). Poets of note include Hugh McCrae (1876–1958) and Dame Mary Gilmore (1865–1962).

Fiction 20th Centuary

Later Fiction
One of the finest craftsmen of Australian fiction was Frank Dalby Davison, known primarily for his animal stories. The most distinctive of these, Man-Shy, was published in the United States as Red Heifer (1934). It is a subtly conceived story of a maverick on a Queensland cattle station. He is quite as discerning in his stories of human character, as, for example, in his study of pre-World War II suburban life in Sydney, the novel The White Thorn Tree (1968). Eleanor Dark wrote excellent historical novels, especially The Timeless Land (1941), which is about the founding of Australia; she also wrote novels of contemporary life. Both types of her fiction are distinguished by psychological perception and brilliant descriptions of the landscape........
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