WHO WE ARE: Is it a sheep? Is it a cow? No, it's super pat

Wednesday May 9, 2007 04:08 PM

Who We Are

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A column about Australia by David Dale, published in The Sun-Herald, 17/5/2009

IN OFFERING this little tract to the public it is equally the writer's wish to conduce to their amusement and information.

As opening sentences of great books go, that doesn't quite match up to "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"; "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there"; "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen"; or "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

But it's certainly more important for Australians than any of those classic teasers, because it's the beginning of the first book ever published about this country.

Sailing with the fleet that left Portsmouth in 1787 for a new Wales somewhere in the south were five men who had been commissioned by publishers to write about an adventure that was as fascinating to the British then as the moon landing was to the modern world in 1969.

The first author to get a manuscript back to his publisher in London was a marine lieutenant named Watkin Tench, and his account of the journey and the first few weeks of the settlement appeared in April 1789. A Narrative of the Expedition To Botany Bay was such a hit (quickly translated into French, German, Dutch and Swedish) that the publishers demanded a sequel, and A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson appeared in 1793. It was another bestseller. You could say Tench was Australia's first international superstar.

No doubt copies of both books were clutched in the hands of Australia's first eight free settlers when they stepped off the boat in Sydney in 1793. They were not put off by Tench's warning to potential colonists: "If golden dreams of commerce and wealth flatter their imaginations, disappointment will follow."

Certainly they would have enjoyed the comedy. Tench is initially puzzled when the people he calls "the Indians" gather round a sheep pen and shout "Kangaroo! Kangaroo!" Later his Aboriginal friend Colbee points at a cow and asks "Is that a kangaroo?" When Tench identifies a two legged furry hopper as a kangaroo, Colbee says: "We call that a patagaran."

It would seem the earlier explorer whom Tench calls "Mr Cook" got the Aboriginal name a little wrong. Strangely, we've stuck with this mistake for two centuries.

(If they make a movie of Tench's books, I can see the most memorable line from Australian cinema so far -- "That's not a knife. That's a knife" -- being replaced by this dialogue ...

Tench: "That's not a kangaroo, that's a cow. That's a kangaroo."
Colbee: "That's not a kangaroo. That's a patagaran.")

Perhaps the women among the first free settlers were attracted by this observation in Tench's book: "No climate hitherto known is more generally salubrious. To this cause I attribute the great number of births which happened ... Women who certainly would never have bred in any other climate here produced as fine children as ever were born."

Perhaps the men found comfort in this: "To men of small property, unambitious of trade, and wishing for retirement, I think the continent of New South Wales not without inducements".

Talk about praising with faint damns. But that's the very modest mindset from which this country grew. In his introduction to a new edition of Tench's books, Tim Flannery refers to A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay as "the most elegant, perceptive and engaging" of the five "foundation books" of Australia's colonial history (the other four being tedious technical tomes).

That led this column to seek your help in compiling a definitive list of the ten key books published about Australia in the past 220 years - books that might not be perfect prose but which reveal something about our national character.

Would you want to include The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes? The Lucky Country by Donald Horne? 4 Ingredients by McCosker and Bermingham? Spotless by Lush and Fleming? Something by Bryce Courtenay, Sara Henderson, Albert Facey, or Hugh MacKay?

Go to Comments to suggest our most significant reading matter.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

COMMENTS

Robert Hughes - Fatal Shore (probably the most readable history of colonial NSW and Tas ever written...let acedemics argue over its worth, but no one will doubt its value as an introduction to Australian history)
Marcus Clarke - Term of His Natural Life (obvious choice being the first Australian novel based on Transportation)
Hirst - Convict Society and its Enemies (an in depth look at the Assignment system, and attitudes towards it which have shaped our perception of convicts - for those who want to delve deeper beyond a general history)
The relevance of Manning Clark's work today is debatable...however his contribution to Australian history should not go unrecognised
Xavier - Poor Fella My Country (A very powerful novel, one which is often overlooked)

by Peter on May 17, 2009 at 12:31 AM

Yes, Albert Facey's A Fortunate Life for the down-to-earth, first hand account of the life of a rambler in early twentieth century Australia.

by GC on May 17, 2009 at 01:20 AM

"A Fortunate Life" is a must. A suggestion out of left field - "They're a Weird Mob"!

by James Ellis on May 17, 2009 at 07:12 AM

I know it isn't in the same category, but "The Thornbirds" I think helped to put Australia on a literary map. It appealed (the novel/story) to the masses; and it raised (I suspect) more tourists to visit Australia. As a Canadian living in a 'hostile' climate; I see similarities with Australians. Not the same hostilities; opposite actually, hot and cold etc. Both colonies of England. Aboriginal people in both countries too. And, the top brass in those days (in England) appointed 'underlings' (my description) of English people to maintain control, and governing of both countries. Chances are those English 'appointed' were, in the class system, at a lower level than the head honchos. Maybe they were lower Anglicans, or Presybeterians. As colonialists, and despite geography and opposite seasons; we are very similar; and we've both have done well, financially and by establishing ourselves as unique countries. That, of course, is due to efforts of our ancestors who adapted to the environs, very much unlike Mother England. I think 'mother England' in the very early days thought of us as living in undesirable places. Too cold in Canada and too hot in Australia. We were smart though; survived 'hostilities' and if we didn't tame the hostilities we at least respected and worked around them, and adapted! Could the higher ups of England at the time have adapted as readily? If interested that is.

by Michael Sullivan on May 17, 2009 at 08:09 AM

" One crowded Hour". by Tim Bowden.

*Sound, sound the clarion, fill the pipe,
Throughout the sensual world proclaim:
One crowded hour of glorious life,
Is worth an age without a name!*

Neil Davis, combat cameraman and journalist, used to write this in every new diary as he covered various political events and wars in Asia and was there when Saigon was finally taken over by the North Vietnamese, standing there with his belle and howe camera filming as the tanks smashed the front gates and entered the presidential palace.

This book describes the events that Davis was involved in throughout Asia and Africa. But it also describes a wonderful and amazing Australian man, who was willing to forgo the comforts of a suburban life for a life which meant getting get to the front line to record the events and the people who were fighting, capturing their courage and their faces as they faced death. He was well known for " swapping sides" and filming events from the " other sides" point of view, which in one case led to him hiding out with the Viet Cong themselves.

Neil Davis had to overcome his own personal battles with polio, jaundice and several encounters with bullets himself.

This book is not only about the events that spanned decades of indo-china conflict but it portrays a very Australian man, who was brave and fearless yet very humble and compassionate, calculating yet reserved, and had an uncanny ability to sum up dangerous situations and know the best path to take, then come "home" and relate events with good grace and humour. I like to think of neil davis as a template for all Australians who manage somehow to find the best path when the ships are down.

The award winning Augie March song "One Crowded Hour" was composed by Glenn Richards while he was reading "One Crowded Hour".

by Imforthewhales on May 17, 2009 at 09:08 AM

'A Fortunate Life' - Albert Facey is a must read for every Australian interested in our transportation.
But another aspect of Australian beginnings is 'Blood on the Wattle' - Bruce Elder. This should be compulsory reading in all schools to show how we became such a racist society, (though I do believe we are improving), and the wrong that was done to the indigenous peoples of this land. Is there a movie about this book? Or would it be too gruesome?

by Dawn Jones on May 17, 2009 at 10:19 AM

A book read avidly and often in my childhood home; 'Devils Hill' (I can not remember the authors' name), contains wonderful chapters filled with 'Aussie perseverance' whilst taming a wild tasmania. "There's a leech having a free beer on your leg son" etc. etc.

by Dragonfly on May 17, 2009 at 10:34 AM

I'll second Peter's suggestion of both "Poor Fella My Country" and "For the Term of His Natural Life" and James' suggestion of "They're a Weird Mob".
David Williamson's "Don's Party", whilst not specifically "a book" is still a revealing piece of writing regarding a most important part of our recent history, as is Ray Lawler's "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll"... and from a personal perspective, Charles Darwin's "The Evolution of Species" is probably easier for Australians to understand and relate to because of the bi-directional influence of our land on him as well as his influential theory and his influence on our evolution as a country.
And I can't forget a writer who had an enormous impact upon my formative years, simply because the reserve he used to retire to in an overly inebriated state, backed onto my parent's property in Como West. As a kid, the celebrations that took place in that reserve to honour his memory, words and legacy left an indelible impression. Sadly; those celebrations of the life and works of Henry Lawson no longer take place - and more's the pity. Just another piece of our Aussie heritage that's bitten the dust in the overly promoted 'race' to become more cosmopolitan and "Worldly"...

DD asks: Is there one book or story of Lawson's that best describes Australia

by Steve C on May 17, 2009 at 11:04 AM

It's a bit out there but "The Lost Continent" by Terry Pratchett is a hilarious look at everything we think makes us Australian.

by Brett on May 17, 2009 at 11:09 AM

David, just for the record Cook didn't 'get it wrong'. Rather he recorded the local word for kangaroo reasonably accurately while in Cooktown, North Queensland. In the language spoken there, Guugu Yimidhirr, the word is 'gangurru'. Cook recorded it as 'kangooroo or Kanguru', and its spelling later settled on 'kangaroo'. It's no surprise that Tench's attempt to use the word in Sydney mystified the locals - it comes from a language spoken 1000s of miles to the north, with dozens of other languages in between.

by Nick Reid on May 17, 2009 at 11:34 AM

For a remarkable insight into the down to to earth grubby politics and sordidly organic subcultural growth of a nation despite official policies "Leviathan: The Unauthorised Biography of Sydney" by John Birmingham is excellent.
None of the usual convict come good come jolly jumbuck jingoism but a real survey of how the mass of a decidedly self interested and disobedient proletarian rabble prone to alcoholism and violence grew into a city.

by Stevn on May 17, 2009 at 12:16 PM

"A House is Built" by M. Barnard Eldershaw along with most of the ones already mentioned, remains a fav albeit light reading by comparison. Also, it might be a century later but equally powerfull "Green Mountain" by Bernard O'Reilly.

by avidreader on May 17, 2009 at 12:21 PM

Flannery's "The Future Eaters" is a somewhat dry but thorough and profound discussion of the ecology of Australia, and goes a long way towards describing how we have tried to adapt to the bush... I think those of us who have lived in the bush will identify with it, and those will haven't should read it anyway.
Its an easier read than Hughes' "The Fatal Shore" too, although agree with comments of that book being the most thorough 'popular' history of early Australia... when reading "The Fatal Shore" I did wonder how much was embellished and how much was real.

by Nathan on May 17, 2009 at 12:45 PM

"Bring Larks And Heroes" & "The Chant Of Jimmy Blacksmith" by Thomas Keneally and "The Secret River" by Kate Grenville. Should the attention span be limited to moving pictures then I suggest viewing the refurbished "Wake In Fright" to be screened shortly.

by Ingo Weinberger on May 17, 2009 at 01:14 PM

A Secret Country by John Pilger and February Dragon by Colin Thiele (actually any of the books by either author) are classics in my view, that provide a sense of place and time, as well as a strong connection to country.

by tracey on May 17, 2009 at 01:32 PM

Stevn beat me to John Birmingham's "Leviathan", but I'd also suggest JB's "He Died With a Felafel in His Hand". A perfect depiction of a time in most young Australian's lives: share housing. (The brown sofa! The furniture out of milk crates! The bucket bong!)
While I am yet to read it, I do have to second "A Fortunate Life" because I have heard such good things of it. And if my Mum was here, she'd definitely be recommending a Patrick White (I'll take a stab in the dark and say "Tree of Man") because when she was living overseas, his books were the only books she could find that spoke to her of the Australia she knew and remembered. And friends of mine would insist on "The Magic Pudding" but I had my childhood on a different continent, and frankly, that's just a plain weird book.
I'd also suggest "Grand Days" by Frank Moorhouse (quite possibly my favourite Australian novel, with a wonderful heroine), "Eucalyptus" by Murray Bail (an Australian fairytale), and the best Australian book I've read so far this year: "The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas for a fairly scathing view of modern Australia.
I'm afraid I do read far more fiction than non-fiction, so I can't possibly comment on the worthiness (or not) of the historical accounts of Australia.
Oh, and speaking of opening lines, I just finished a book with the rather wonderful opening line of "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains". http://www.galaxybooks.com.au/items.asp?id=232151

by tqd on May 17, 2009 at 01:44 PM

I agree with The Fatal Shore, and For the Term of His Natural Life as being essential, but would like to add a couple more:
* The Broken Years by Bill Gammage is undoubtedly, short of reading the whole of CEW Bean's Official history of WW1 itself a tremendous literary achievement), the best look at Anzac, the western front, etc and what Australians were like in WW1
* The Tyranny of Distance and Triumph of the Nomads by Geoffrey Blainey fit well with Fatal Shore (both influenced it)
* The True story of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey is the best summation of Ned and what he means to us all (Ian Jones' Ned Kelly: A Short Life is also very good as a biography)

by brett coster on May 17, 2009 at 04:48 PM

As a slightly different suggestion, I think Nadia Wheatley's "My Place" should be included, a beautiful view of the many people who have made this place home.

by Kate on May 17, 2009 at 06:18 PM

Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy. His beautiful prose makes the city of Darwin as important a character as the main protagonist. And I agree with Kate in her nomination of the beautiful picture book "My Place" which takes us through so many different images of Australia - from indigenous traditional culture all the way up to 1988. I still remember the joy I felt reading it as a child, discovering each child's version of the "street" map - it was a real education into the multicultural heritage of Australia for the first time when I was in primary school.
Kate, you may be happy to hear that ABC is now in pre-production for their own version of "My Place" - as a teacher at a school that is based on a specific culture, we've had casting calls.

I'm also a fan of A Fortunate Life - I think the prose is beautiful and down to earth. And I haven't read it yet, but have had many people recommend Eucalyptus to me as being uniquely Australian. Thanks so much for this topic, it has given me so many ideas of texts to try to introduce to my students!!

by Beckala on May 17, 2009 at 06:50 PM

Romeril's "The Floating World" is a great addition to the list.

by Jules Watson on May 17, 2009 at 07:48 PM

"Kangaroo" comes from the Guugu Yimidhirr word "gangurru", meaning a grey kangaroo. Different kangaroos have different names, and different aboriginal people would have different words for the animal. So, the story probably isn't as interesting as it seems.

by Jim on May 17, 2009 at 09:14 PM

Facey's "A fortunate life"
Tiffen and Gittins "How Australia compares"
Treborlang's "How to be normal in Australia"

by A.Lange on May 18, 2009 at 01:51 PM

For the Term of his Natural Life - Marcus Clark, read it in the Botanical Gardens and be transported back in time.

by Chris Fuller on May 18, 2009 at 03:17 PM

They seem to be forgotten now but the trilogy, "The Fortunes of Richard Mahony", by Henry Handel Richardson gave a vivd picture of Australia in the mid 19th century. I must read them again - haven't opened them since 1982!!

by Cathy on May 18, 2009 at 04:16 PM

Last week I was reading on the train and had got to the part which says 'Como' said the station sign ... and at the time we were passing over Como Bridge! How spooky is that! Chances are a million to one. I was reading Kangaroo by D. H. Lawrence and vote it as one of the top 10. It was written in 1923 but it so fresh and vivid and relates to many events happening today.

by Shirley on May 18, 2009 at 07:07 PM

Yes it was the climate, not the fornicatin' that was causing all the babies.
I have to second 'Eucalyptus'. What could be more Australian? Hopefully Rusty Crowe never gets his plans for a film version off the ground.
Also recommend 'Claim' by Matt Schultz about the Tichborn Claimant if you're into history. Not sure if it says much about Australia except that our criminals become our legends.

by darren on May 19, 2009 at 08:37 AM

history - Babette Smith's Australia's Birthstain sources the shame of convict ancestry to homophobia. Recent and readable.
fiction - Henry Handel Richardson, everything she wrote

by penelope on May 19, 2009 at 09:00 AM

"Old Books, Old Friends, Old Sydney" by James Tyrrell is a rare treasure. Worth it just for the anecdotes about a young Henry Lawson. Also 'Trim' by Matthew Flinders is a great little read.

by Kat on May 19, 2009 at 09:43 AM

TGH Strehlow's "Songs of Central Australia" is the definitive Australian book for my money and if you can find a reasonably priced copy let me know.

by Jon Lewis on May 19, 2009 at 05:32 PM

Sally Morgan's My Place (different from Nadia Wheatley's My Place as posted by Kate on May 17) is important for understanding the Aboriginal Australian's perspective of their changed homeland and the difficulties they face in trying to keep their self-worth and their families together.

by Jane on May 20, 2009 at 07:23 AM

DD asks:"Is there one book or story of Henry Lawson's that best describes Australia"
No... but I doubt there will ever be a single author/s who is capable of encapsulating "Australia" in it's entirity into something like a book or story... let alone a film: which may explain why Baz Luhrmann's "Australia" didn't really resonate in the way the promoters may have hoped for lots of us.
Lawson's "While the Billy Boils" and "The Drover's Wife" struck me as tangible and unromaticised visions of what life for many ordinary Aussies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries must have been like.
His words struck home all the more, for being able to sit where he supposedly had his camp site on the land that became the reserve named in his honour as an impressionable kid; and just imagine seeing the home and countryside I knew in the early 1960's as he did many years before... but that was my good fortune.
Other Aussies would see things differently I'm sure.

by Steve C on May 20, 2009 at 11:50 AM

My top 10 would be -
A Fortunate Life - A B FAcey
Kings in Grass Castles - MAry Durack
Carpricornia - Xavier Herbert
Tree of Man - Patrick White
Working Bullocks - Katherine Susannah Pritchard
Winter Sparrows - MAry-Anne Liverani
Powere Without Glory - Frank HArdy
Romulus My Father - RAymond Gaita
My Place - Sally Morgan
Manning Clark's History of Australia
Between them, they cover the Koorie and European experience that shaped Australia's 'national character' (if there is such a thing!).
Ron Browne

by Ron Browne on May 21, 2009 at 08:53 AM

I am surprised that Eleanor Dark's trilogy of "The Timeless Land", "Storm of Time" and "No Barrier" has not been named. I found these to be a marvelous account of early Australia from even before Captain Phillip landed. "No Barrier" is an account of the crossing of the Blue Mountains. These books should be a must read for every Australian student.

by Lorna Barnett on May 22, 2009 at 02:44 PM

Some more

Coonardoo by Katherine Susannah Pritchard
We of the Never Never by Mrs Aeneas Gunn
Deadly 'Unna by (temporary blank) but the film Australian Rules caused a controversy when this book was adapted for it.
Shadows of Time by Patricia Wrightson
When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
Mr Darwin's Shooter by Roger MacDonald
Great World by David Malouf

by julie on May 23, 2009 at 11:54 AM

Some more
Coonardoo by Katherine Susannah Pritchard
We of the Never Never by Mrs Aeneas Gunn
Deadly 'Unna by (temporary blank) but the film Australian Rules caused a controversy when this book was adapted for it.
Shadows of Time by Patricia Wrightson
When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
Mr Darwin's Shooter by Roger MacDonald
Great World by David Malouf

by julie on May 23, 2009 at 12:01 PM

Children's books like the previously mentioned My Place by Nadia Wheatley are underrated in value for adults understanding of the essence of growing up in Australia.
Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner shows how Sydney was in the 19th century as well as the exuberance and rebelliousness of larger families and the freedoms of the Australian way of life.
The true story of Spit MacPhee by James Aldridge is a tremendous story of survival and self sufficiency in small town Australia.
Cloudstreet was voted Australia's favourite book a couple of years ago... very different but just as good is The Shark net by Robert Drewe. Both are set in Perth in the time frame of Eric Cooke the serial killer who was the second last man to be hanged in Australia.

by julie on May 23, 2009 at 12:51 PM

I'm surprised only one person has nominated our only Nobel laureate, responsible according to the Swedish Academy, for introducing " a new continent into literature". Patrick White's quintessentially Australian novels, steeped in Australian folklore and cultural myth, should be included in any top 20. I nominate the Tree of Man for it's depiction of everyday life and the changing face of suburbia in Sydney as the city sprawls into the bush.

by Mary on May 23, 2009 at 05:15 PM

A rather 'white male East Coats list we have here David. What about 'Letters of Rachel Henning' ( contemporary 1860s rural), My Brilliant Career ( Mile Franklin's late 19th century woman's world), Joe Cinque's Consolation ( 21st century tale of children of migrants' experience)? From over the 'divide', perhaps we could have Randolph Stowe's 'Merry Go Round in the Sea' or almost anything of Winton's - perhaps 'Dirt Music'. It is also quite astounding that our Nobel laureate didn't get a guernsey - Voss (??) Fringe of Leaves(??) Everyone has their views. Interesting isn't it?

by beverley griffiths on May 24, 2009 at 12:35 PM

A great addition would be a trilogy called "Kable" by June Whittaker.

by Gail Maclean on May 24, 2009 at 02:30 PM

Mary, I'm not surprised that few people have mentioned Patrick White. His books are stunningly boring -- I've read plenty of them.
I would also ban anything by Tim Winton from the list ; and anything by Kate Grenville, whose use of "hugger-mugger" in The Secret River comes from Patrick White -- and gives her an automatic red card.
Any book by Robert G. Barrett captures Australia -- especially Sydney -- at a moment in time.
Vance Palmer's The Passage is a great read which leaves White languishing in the desert with bloody Voss.
Finally, a little-mentioned book which I read in the 1960s and recently re-read Contillo by Raymond Aitcheson -- covers similar ground to They're a Weird Mob, but with fewer stereotypes and deeper level of understanding of the migrant experience.
Agreed on that score with The Winter Sparrows, by Mary Rose Liverani -- which has at least 2 versions floating around, and which would make a killer film.
Finally, we must include The Australian Encyclopedia, and a collected version of A.B. Paterson's poems.

by Professor Rosseforp on May 25, 2009 at 08:14 PM

Oh my goodness how could I forget Christina Stead? The Man who Loved Children and For Love Alone

by julie on May 26, 2009 at 06:01 PM

And what about Helen Garner?? Yes, Joe Cinque's Consolation, The Spare Room and The First Stone...and great story I read on the recommendation of my father about Matthew Flinders called My Love Must Wait by Ernestine Hill

by julie on May 26, 2009 at 06:06 PM

The Sun-Herald

Who We Are

WHO WE ARE: Is it a sheep? Is it a cow? No, it's super pat

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