AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Miles Franklin wrote Childhood at Brindabella, an autobiography, in 1952-53, but it wasn't published until after her death in 1954. It is a story of an idyllic time, spent in the hills of Brindabella near present-day Canberra, and full of sunshine, sweet ripe fruit and interesting relations. This is a timely new edition of a significant work by one of Australia's best-loved authors. Miles Franklin (1879-1954) spent her first ten years at Brindabella, near Canberra, before the family moved to a property near Goulburn, the setting for her autobiographical novel, My Brilliant Career. Miles Franklin was a feminist and a socialist, working in America with Alice Henry in the National Women's Trade Union League.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (2003 ed.).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also braille, sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Back into the Past at the Other Bronte
2022
single work
essay
— Appears in: Quadrant , March vol. 66 no. 3 2022; (p. 72-79)'In reminiscences and family matters handed down, few are written and fewer published, and they are distorted by ignorance and surmise. The reprints of Miles Franklin's 'Childhood in Brindabella' cannot convey the experience of the three months that it took in the 1840s for a family to move from near the Raby of Thomas Mitchell south of the Campbelltown road junction with the Hume Highway to that place in the deep bush. Now it is a few hours’ drive. The day-to-day reality of the old treks is beyond our experience or understanding.' (Publication abstract)
-
Encounters with Amnesia: Confronting the Ghosts of Australian Landscape
2019
single work
essay
— Appears in: Griffith Review , January no. 63 2019; (p. 272-281)'Nature writing has never been more popular. In recent years it has become an international publishing phenomenon, with titles such as Helen Macdonald's 'H is for Hawk' (Jonathan Cape, 2014), Robert Macfarlane's 'Landmarks' (Hamish Hamilton, 2015), Amy Liptrot's 'The Outrun' (Canongate, 2016) and Sy Montgomery's 'How to be a Good Creature' (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018) scoring significant worldwide success. Australia, too, has its own rich history of nature writing. For more than a century, nature writing was 'the' primary literature for writing the country; a vital part of the ongoing process, for settler-Australians, of coming to feel at home in what were initially unfamiliar environments, and of creating a sense of national identity around them. Yet, today, nature writing is not widely known or understood here, and it's apparent that more Australians have read 'H is for Hawk' (18,000 copies sold so far according to Bookscan) than any of our own contemporary works.' (Publication abstract)
-
Going To The Silences
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , June 2017;'A long time ago, after the publicity had finished for my first memoir When It Rains and while I was still brimming with writing confidence and no real direction I dreamed what my next book was to be. Woken by a willie wagtail calling outside my window I reached for the notebook on the bedside table. With eyes still sticky with sleep I scrawled down the details of the extraordinary walk I had just taken with Miles Franklin.' (Introduction)
-
Revisiting the Frontier, from Miles Franklin's Brindabella to South Australia's Eyre Peninsula
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Colonial History , no. 15 2013; (p. 169-182)'As a South Australian by birth and an early enthusiast for urban history, I was not deeply impressed by Russel Ward in my youth. However, that was a long time ago. Since then I have come to appreciate The Australian Legend (1958) and to feel that it could be better understood. No doubt my own work on Miles Franklin, and my days on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, some of which I will be referring to shortly, has had good deal to do with it; but so too has an increasing awareness of the challenges now facing rural and regional Australia. In what follows, I start with the young Russel Ward and what led him to focus on the pastoral frontier of eastern Australia. Next comes a consideration of the Legend's relevance to two very different regions, the Brindabella area in the southern mountains of New South Wales, and Eyre Peninsula, the western most peninsula of South Australia, both of which as it happens were first colonised by Europeans in the 1840s. Lastly, by way of conclusion, I offer some observations on the changing face of 'the frontier' since the 1950s, drawing on my own experience. That may sound rather presumptuous. But it is more or less in line with the task that Ward set for us in the final paragraph of his book, which reads in full: It is generally agreed that without a distinctive national tradition a people lacks cohesion, balance, and confidence. It is usually assumed that in a young country like ours, inherited attitudes exert less influence than in old one. The truth maybe that, because of its relative youth, our tradition is at once too dominating and too rigid, and that we tend compulsively to worship it as, so to speak, a fair though sacred cow. But nothing could be more thoroughly within the tradition than 'to give it a go' - to venture boldly on new courses of action, and so modify, and even create, traditions as the anonymous bushmen, and, later, the men of the 'nineties did. Today's task might well be to develop those features of the Australian tradition which still seem valid in modern conditions.' (Introduction)
-
Brindabella Child Goes On to a Brilliant Career
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 25 March 2007; (p. 21)
-
Winter Reading
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 252 2003; (p. 57-58)
— Review of Mailman of the Birdsville Track : The Story of Tom Kruse 2003 single work biography ; And What Have You Done Lately? 2003 single work autobiography ; Cecilia : An Ex-Nun's Extraordinary Journey 2003 single work autobiography ; Sailing Alone Around the World 1899 single work autobiography ; Childhood at Brindabella : My First Ten Years 1962 single work autobiography ; A Guide to Australian Folklore: From Ned Kelly to Aeroplane Jelly 2003 reference -
Untitled
1963
single work
review
— Appears in: The Cairns Post , 24 August 1963; (p. 8)
— Review of Childhood at Brindabella : My First Ten Years 1962 single work autobiography -
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman
1979
single work
review
— Appears in: Quadrant , October vol. 23 no. 10 1979; (p. 67-69)
— Review of My Brilliant Career 1901 single work novel ; Childhood at Brindabella : My First Ten Years 1962 single work autobiography -
A Job Lot
1963
single work
review
— Appears in: Westerly , September no. 3 1963; (p. 77,79-80)
— Review of Childhood at Brindabella : My First Ten Years 1962 single work autobiography ; Tourmaline 1963 single work novel -
Miles on Miles
1963
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August vol. 2 no. 10 1963; (p. 167)
— Review of Childhood at Brindabella : My First Ten Years 1962 single work autobiography -
Miles Franklin and Her Brindabella Childhood
2006
single work
biography
— Appears in: Margin , November no. 70 2006; (p. 16-28) -
Brindabella Child Goes On to a Brilliant Career
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 25 March 2007; (p. 21) -
Miles Franklin's Childhood at Brindabella
1987
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 46 no. 1 1987; (p. 58-66) -
"Infinite Rehearsal" in the Work of Miles Franklin
1989
single work
criticism
— Appears in: New Literatures Review , Winter South no. 18 1989; (p. 37-47) -
Bobilla Days
1963
single work
column
biography
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 21 September vol. 85 no. 4362 1963; (p. 38,40)
- Canberra region (NSW), Southeastern NSW, New South Wales,
- 1879-1889