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Notes
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Selection arranged into the following parts: The Roaring Days; To Settle on the Land; The Great Grey Plain; At Sea and Elsewhere; Verse.
Contents
- A Genius to the Fingertips, single work criticism (p. vii-xxxii)
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An Old Mate of Your Father's,
single work
short story
The narrator remembers how his father would be visited by old mates and how they sit together talking about their days on the Ballarat and Bendigo goldfields.
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Payable Gold,
single work
short story
Peter MacKenzie, retired from the Ballarat goldfields and living in Melbourne with his family, is lured north to the N. S. W. goldfields. He has mortgaged his home to support his wife and children while he is away and labours unsuccessfully for years before he strikes payable gold. When he returns to Melbourne he finds that even Alligator Desolation, the family dog, has missed him.
-
'Shall We Gather at the River?',
single work
short story
(p. 15-30)
Note: With subtitle: Told by Joe Wilson
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The Golden Graveyard,
single work
short story
humour
Dave and Jim drive a secret shaft under a cemetery where they've discovered signs of gold. When Mother Middleton uncovers their workings, however, the men must flee for their lives.
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The Loaded Dog,
single work
short story
humour
Dave and Andy create a bomb to blast fish out of the waterhole. However their dog picks the bomb up and begins a deadly, yet hilarious, game of 'fetch'.
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The Drover's Wife,
single work
short story
First appearing in The Bulletin in 1892, Henry Lawson's short story 'The Drovers Wife' is today regarded as a seminal work in the Australian literary tradition. Noted for it's depiction of the bush as harsh, potentially threatening and both isolated and isolating, the story opens with a simple enough premise: an aggressive--and presumably deadly--snake disrupts the working life of a bushwoman and her young children. Brave but cautious, the woman resolves to protect her children since her husband is, characteristically, away from home and of no help.
As time passes within the story, tension builds, and the snake's symbolic threat takes on layers of meaning as the sleepless heroine recalls previous challenges she faced while her husband was away. A series of flashbacks and recollections propel the story through the single night over which it takes place, and by the time the climax arrives--the confrontation with the snake--readers have learned much about the heroine's strengths and fears, most of the latter involving the loss of children and dark figures who encroach upon her small, vulnerable homestead. To be sure, this "darkness" is highly symbolic, and Lawson's use of imagery invokes Western notions of good and evil as well as gendered and racial stereotypes.
- Joe Wilson's Courtship, single work short story (p. 69-107)
- Brighten's Sister-in-Law, single work short story (p. 107-135)
- 'Water Them Geraniums', single work short story (p. 135-170)
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A Double Buggy at Lahey's Creek,
single work
short story
Joe Wilson puts off buying a buggy for his long-suffering wife Mary. A trip to town and an encounter with Mary's former lover changes his mind.
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Enter Mitchell,
single work
short story
A swagman and his dog get off the train at Redfern station and are accosted by a taxi driver.
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In a Dry Season,
single work
short story
Lawson describes the scenes observed as a train traveller to western N.S.W.
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The Union Buries Its Dead,
single work
short story
humour
Describes a bush funeral.
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On the Edge of a Plain,
single work
short story
A swagman arrives home to discover the family in mourning for him, after having been told he is dead.
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A Rough Shed,
single work
short story
A rouseabout describes the routines and privations of his life in outback shearing sheds.
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Stragglers,
single work
short story
Description of a group of swagmen and travellers camped in the shearers' shed of a remote sheep station on New Year's Eve.
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Baldy Thompson,
single work
short story
Looks at the many grievances, and the strengths, of old-time squatter, Baldy Thompson.
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They Wait on the Wharf in Black : Told by Mitchell's Mate,
single work
short story
The narrator, Mitchell and The Oracle, are travelling back steerage from Western Australia. One of their fellow travellers, an elderly digger called Tom, is returning home because his wife has died. When they reach Sydney Tom's children are waiting on the wharf for him and Mitchell demonstrates true kindness.
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Seeing the Last of You,
single work
short story
Mitchell offers his views on how departures by sea should be handled, but reveals an affection for an old aunt who always insisted on seeing him off.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Blainey's Lawson
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: Eureka Street , April vol. 12 no. 3 2002; (p. 43-44)
— Review of Henry Lawson 2002 selected work short story criticism poetry -
Lawson's Opportunity Lost
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 7 April 2002; (p. 9)
— Review of Henry Lawson 2002 selected work short story criticism poetry -
The Lore Makers
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 5 March vol. 120 no. 6314 2002; (p. 32-36) The Best Australian Essays 2003 2003; (p. 368-375)
-
Lawson's Opportunity Lost
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 7 April 2002; (p. 9)
— Review of Henry Lawson 2002 selected work short story criticism poetry -
Blainey's Lawson
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: Eureka Street , April vol. 12 no. 3 2002; (p. 43-44)
— Review of Henry Lawson 2002 selected work short story criticism poetry -
The Lore Makers
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 5 March vol. 120 no. 6314 2002; (p. 32-36) The Best Australian Essays 2003 2003; (p. 368-375)