
Ellen Davitt, Force and Fraud (review)
that narrative mode [detective as hero] had not gained genre dominance. An alternative model equally existed, splitting the role of detective among various characters: Lucy Sussex

Mary Grant Bruce, A little bush maid (fiction extract)
by Mary Grant Bruce (1878-1958) To complement Michelle Scott Tucker’s essay on Mary Grant Bruce’s iconic Billabong books, we present Chapter 1 of A little bush maid, the initial book in the series. (As Michelle warns, the series contains outdated values...
Mary Grant Bruce, Billabong Series
My newest favourite character, Norah Linton, lived with her widowed father and beloved older brother on a huge and prosperous farming property, called Billabong, in country Victoria in the early 1900s
May Kendall, The mechanical housekeeper (poem)
by May Kendall aka Adelina Mabel Kendall (1873-1953) Comic verse about two men and an automaton from a little-known Australian poet, published in 1906. Two men I know – Eugene and Joe – And one is always moping, The other’s bright and ready wit Doth keep him...
The poet of Kiama: May Kendall (essay)
by Elizabeth Lhuede Another in our series of forgotten Australian women writers. In 1907, The Catholic Press published the following column which referred to writers belonging to literary families: We have several examples in Australia of the Literary and artistic...Barbara Baynton, A dreamer (short story)
by Barbara Baynton A short story, the first in the collection, Bush studies (1902). A swirl of wet leaves from the night-hidden trees decorating the little station beat against the closed doors of the carriages. The porter hurried along holding his blear-eyed lantern...
Barbara Baynton, A dreamer
by Whispering Gums A review of the first story in Barbara Baynton’s collection, Bush studies. This month we have featured Barbara Baynton in a few posts – two articles (a review of Penne Hackforth-Jones’ biography, and a review of Baynton’s...
Barbara Baynton, Human Toll (fiction extract)
by Barbara Baynton (1857-1929) Baynton’s Human Toll is a gothic novel, almost unrelievably dark. The passage we have chosen here is a relatively lighter one, illustrating Ursula’s yearning for freedom from her oppressive foster parents, the Rev and Mrs...
Barbara Baynton, Human Toll
we must own that it will not please one man in twenty. But for that we must blame not the author’s genius, but our public’s aesthetic limitations.