About

The Commonwealth of Australia is one of the world’s greatest nations. And great nations have great literature.

Literature is unique to mankind. It can take us to past ages and distant places. It can put us in the minds of other men, even those long dead. It can show us a world in which we have not lived and open our eyes to things unseen.

Australian literature is concerned with the life and times of the Australian People — the race of men that created this Commonwealth and established their homeland on the Australasian continent. They are a people as unique as any other, with a cultural world that marks them apart from the family of nations for reasons which become abundantly clear from the reading of their writings.

Those who wish to know Australia and its people should therefore study its literature. The themes and subjects that animated Australian life are hard to miss: the British connection, convicts, drovers, bushrangers, shearers, fossickers, sailors, explorers, Aborigines, settlers, scientists, and more.

But if all this fails to stir the mind or rouse the intellect, then at last may the words of the Australian people be read for other reasons. If not for enlightenment, for enjoyment; if not for profit, for entertainment. So above all, have fun!