Larrikins, Bush Tales and Other Great Australian Stories
From one of our master storytellers, author of the bestselling Great Australian Stories, comes another collection of yarns, tall tales, bush legends and colourful characters. Taking us from the deep outback to the glistening sea, they go to the heart of what makes us distinctively Australian.
Was Breaker Morant the Gatton murderer? What happened to Sniffling Jimmy and Black Mary? We revisit some of the most colourful characters in Australia's past, and the stories that have grown around them. We go looking for the real illywhacker and find out what happened after the execution of our most famous outlaw, Ned Kelly.
It takes a certain character to make a living in the Australian bush. In the most difficult situations, laughter often comes to the rescue. Here are pioneers and battlers, convicts and settler's children, and a land that tests them with fire, flood and drought, all in stories resonant with Australia's distinctive wry humour. Dip into Larrikins, Bush Tales and Other Great Australian Stories for a taste of Australia's rich history and traditions.
Author bio:
Graham Seal AM is Professor of Folklore at Curtin University, and a leading expert on traditional Australian culture. He is the author of many books about Australian history and culture, including the bestselling Great Australian Stories and Great Anzac Stories. His These Few Lines: The Lost Lives of Myra and William Sykes won the National Biography Award.
Acknowledgements
1 WIDE BROWN LAND
Eaglehawk and Crow
Great floods
Firestick farming
'The landscape looked like a park'
Captain Cook's Law
The corners
2 UPON THE FATAL SHORE
Leaden hearts
The Ring
The melancholy death of Captain Logan
The Convict's Tour to Hell
'Make it hours instead of days'
Captain of the push
The Prince of Pickpockets
3 PLAINS OF PROMISE
'I was not expected to survive'
The town that drowned
Wine and witches
Phantoms of the landfall light
Tragedy on Lizard Island
Who was Billy Barlow?
The temple of skulls
Chimney Sweeps' Day
The dragon of Big Gold Mountain WC
Fearful
4 A FAIR GO
Black Mary
The Tambaroora line
Mates
A glorious spree
The Greenhide Push waltzes Matilda
The Bunuba resistance
The bagman's gazette
Homes of hope
5 HOW WE TRAVEL THE LAND
Rangers and rouseabouts
The swagman's union
The oozlum bird
The Tea and Sugar Train
The black stump
The rise and fall of Cobb & Co.
The Long Paddock
The real Red Dog
6 DOING IT TOUGH
Depending on the harvest
'Women of the West'
Cures!
A seasonal guide to weather and wives
Backyard brainwaves WC
WC Sugar bag nation
Happy Valleys
Sergeant Small
The farmer's will
7 HOME OF THE WEIRD
Curious discoveries
The marble man
Was Breaker Morant the Gatton murderer?
Vanishing vessels
Yearning for yowies
8 ROMANCING THE SWAG
Lore of the track
Sniffling Jimmy
The poetic swaggie
'There you have the Australian swag'
A swagman's death
Where the angel tarboys fly
Bowyang Bill and the cocky farmer
The Mad Eight
9 AFTER THE KELLYS
The saga
A Glenrowan letter
'I thought it was a circus'
A death in Forbes
Living legends
The stranger
10 THE CHILD IN THE BUSH
The beanstalk in the bush
Forgotten nursery rhymes
The lost boys of Daylesford
Fairies in the paddock
Surviving Black Jack
11 LARGER THAN LIFE
The fate of Captain Cadell
The Fenian
The last bushranger
Lawson's people
The Coo-ee Lady
Australia's first Hollywood star
A vision splendid
The illywacker
12 WORKING FOR A LAUGH
Droving in a bar
A fine team of bullocks
A stump speech
Working on the railway
Service!
High-octane travel
Railway birds
Rechtub klat
The Garbos' Christmas
A Christmas message
Total eclipse of communication
The laws of working life
Somebody else's job
The basic work survival guide
Twelve things you'll never hear an employee tell the boss
Excessive absence
Running naked with the bulls
Doing business
The end of a perfect day
Sources
Bibliography
Picture credits
Teachers reviews
This book is very entertaining and holds the reader's attention as it gives an insight of how life used to be. It is an interesting style of book where the author gives some historical background prior to the yarn. This book is organised in sections relating to different topics so it doesn't have to be read from start to finish.
It would be suited to many Australian curriculum units such as First Contacts along with the unit Community and Remembrance as it gives indigenous, early explorer and settler perspectives. It would also suit geography studies as it relates to change over time. In literacy, this book would be useful as shared reading as well as analysis of poetry and verse. Some stories also relate to Indigenous perspectives of sustainability that can be useful in environmental studies. This book adds to who we are today as a nation and how we have evolved. As a multicultural society we are at risk of losing our 'bush tales'. It was a thorough enjoyable read.
Michelle Hackett, Romsey Primary School VIC
Teachers reviews
What a fabulous resource for any coffee table or library! Graham Seal’s stories and narrative of Australia’s journey builds on previous work and puts a more serious slant on the yarns gathered earlier but such writers Bill Wannan. Since getting this book to review I have read it, browsed it and gone back to look for specific tales complementary to other subjects I am reading. Seal weaves an erudite study of various themes in Australia’s (written) history. The relaxing part of this book is that it reads as a series of yarns. It is friendly and approachable; entertaining and informative. It gives food for thought.
Stories covered are grouped into phases of Australia’s past; favourite or popular themes are quick to find and each contains a snippet or two of the unusual and the less well known.
For a general reader it is an asset for every class room. As an easy access afternoon reader for an interesting change of focus it is entertaining – and frequently a conversation starter. It provides a springboard into asking effective research questions and further inquiry. It should sell itself!
Michael Cruickshank, Hellyer College, TAS
