From pioneer tales to urban myths, folklore expert Graham Seal has gathered some of the best Australian stories from around the country. Tall tales and true, these are the stories we tell ourselves over and over again.
'Great Australian Stories is true to its title as it wanders from bush track to spooky hollow, follows the path of yowies and bunyips, searches for Lasseter's Reef, meets Dad and Dave and, on a different path, Henny-Penny, and then rambles into the cities where just as many entertaining characters are ready to tell their stories.' - From the foreword by Warren Fahey
Australia has a rich tradition of storytelling that reflects our unique history and experience. Great Australian Stories gathers some of the best of our stories from colonial times to the present, with bush yarns, tall stories, urban myths, and tales of the mysterious and downright weird.
With ten new stories, this second edition of the bestselling Great Australian Stories is the most representative collection available of the stories we tell about ourselves. Graham Seal explains where the stories come from, and why even the outright lies reveal a truth of sorts.
Author bio:
Graham Seal is Professor of Folklore at Curtin University, and a leading expert on traditional Australian culture.
Category:
Literature & literary studies
ISBN:
9781742374734
Edition No:
2nd
Table Of Contents:
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Telling tales
1 STORIES IN THE HEART
Wirreenun the rainmaker
Mau and Matang
Ungulla Robunbun
Ooldea Water
The woolgrum
2 PIONEER TRADITIONS
The lost colony
The battle that was a massacre
The White Woman of Gippsland
Raising the Southern Cross
The lost children of the Wimmera
3 MAKING MONSTERS
The bunyip
Yaramas, jarnbahs, jannocks and yowies
Alien cats
The Min Min lights
4 LEGENDS ON THE LAND
The man who sold his Dreaming
Naming places
The Lone Pine seedlings
The first dawn service
Lasseter's Reef
The carpet of silver
The dead horse treasure
The silver reef
Black Jack's booty
5 THE HAUNTED LAND
Fisher's ghost
The ghost on old Pinjarrah Bridge
A Vice-Regal haunting
The Black Lady of Mount Victoria
The Murdering Sandhill
The rabbi and the roseate pearl
The ghosts of Garth
'Mad Dog' Morgan's ghost
The headless drover
6 TALES OF WONDER
Henny-Penny
The witch's tale
7 BULLDUST
What a hide!
The split dog
Drop bears
Hoop snakes
Giant mozzies
Dinkum!
The exploding dunny
The well-dressed roo
Loaded animals
The blackout babies
The Head
The sex life of an electron
Do not break the chain
8 HEROES
Wungala and the wulgaru
Aftermath of the Eureka Stockade
Ben Hall
Thunderbolt
Grace Bussell
Diggers
Sportsmen
Racehorses
9 CHARACTERS
The drongo
Snuffler Oldfield
Tom Doyle
The widow Reilly's pigs
Dad, Dave and Mabel
Cousin Jacks
Tom'n'oplas
Jacky Bindi-i
Jimmy Ah Foo
Corny Kenna
Three blokes at a pub
The smarter soldier
Taken for a ride
10 HARD CASES
The cocky
Hungry Tyson
Ninety the Glutton
Galloping Jones
The Eulo Queen
Dopers
Wheelbarrow Jack
The jilted bride
Long Jack
The world's greatest whinger
11 WORKING PEOPLE
Crooked Mick and the Speewah
Slow trains
Bushies
The wharfie's reply
The union dog
The Dimboola Cat Farm
A farmer's lament
The little red hen
The airline steward's revenge
The boss
Picture credits
Sources and selected references
Publisher:
Allen & Unwin
Imprint:
Allen & Unwin
Pub Date:
December 2011
Page Extent:
312
Format:
Paperback - B format
Age:
0 - 0
Subject:
Anthologies (non-poetry)