As we mentioned in our last newsletter, the AustLit Gateway team is dispersed across this wide nation, working together to contribute their indexing, bibliographic and research knowledge and expertise, to provide AustLit users with valuable information relating to Australian authors and their writings from the 1780s to the present day.

In May 2002, most of the AustLit team members met on site at the University of Queensland for a 2-day AustLit Refresher Training course. As well as providing the team with a valuable opportunity to meet face to face once again, the course allowed the AustLit Content Managers to update staff on developments and changes to AustLit policies and indexing procedures. What a great team! Check out a great photo taken at the end of the course (our thanks to team member Joan Keating for the photo).

In this newsletter we would like to introduce you to the Canberra based members of the team.

UNSW@ADFA

The team members based at UNSW@ADFA, include: Annette Scarvell, Tessa Wooldridge, Jenny Huntley, Lesley Banson, Jane Rankine, Philippa Wicks and Roger Osborne, who are located in the Academy Library. Assisting the team on a regular basis are ADFA's Language, Literature and Communication's researchers: Susan Cowan and Sarah Randles.

Annette Scarvell is one of AustLit's two Content Managers and she possesses both library and business administration (MBA) qualifications. As well as managing the ADFA based team, she has shared responsibility (with Carol Hetherington at UQ) of overseeing the work of all of AustLit's contributors working around Australia.

All of the ADFA contributors are qualified in library or literary research areas and have been working for AustLit (as the single database (1988-2000) and also in the collaborative Gateway environment (2000-2002)) for a cumulative 30 years or more! Between them, the indexers and researchers possess substantial expertise and experience and a wealth of knowledge of Australian Literature that contributes to enhancing the AustLit Gateway on a daily basis.

University of Canberra (Lu Rees Archive)

Rebecca Kemble is a librarian who began work for the Lu Rees Archives earlier this year. Under the direction of Professor Belle Alderman, Rebecca has divided her time between scanning valuable children's literature books and journals and working with children's literature authors and researchers to provide the best possible description and access to bibliographic and biographical information and to archival material available in their collection.

Rebecca continues the excellent work of Marlene Myers who was with the Lu Rees Archives for five years and who still retains a strong link with the Archives on a volunteer basis.

In coming newsletters we will be introducing you to our contributors from the other partner institutions: University of Queensland; Monash University; Flinders University of South Australia, University of Western Australia, Deakin University and the University of Sydney.

The formal launch of AustLit : Australian Literature Gateway will take place at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, on August 27, 2002. AustLit will be launched by the Honourable Dr Brendan Nelson, Minister for Education, Science & Training.

Queen's Birthday Honours
After receiving negligible representation in the 2002 Australia Day Honours list, those engaged in the field of Australian literature featured more prominently in the 2002 Queen's Birthday Honours. Recipients of awards with connections to Australian literature were:

• Michael Thwaites - Order of Australia, Officer in the General Division (AO)
  'for service to the community, to the Anglican Diocese of Canberra-Goulburn, and to literature as an author of poetry and narrative works reflecting the emergence of Australia's nationhood'.
• John Ritchie - Order of Australia, Officer in the General Division (AO)
  'for service in recording the history of the social sciences and the humanities in Australia as General Editor of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, particularly in the maintenance of international standards of historical biography and encouragement of new initiatives in the field.'
• Miranda Harrowell - Order of Australia, Member in the General Division (AM)
  'for service to the promotion of Australian children's literature, particularly through Kids Own Australian Literature Awards (KOALA) and the preservation of the Children's Research Collection of NSW.'
• Amy Witting (Joan Levick) - Order of Australia, Member in the General Division (AM) 'for service to Australian literature as a novelist, poet and short story writer, and as a mentor to younger writers.'
• Ron Pretty - Order of Australia, Member in the General Division (AM)
  'for service to literature, particularly through the establishment of organisations to foster the promotion of Australian poetry.'
• Lolo Houbein - Order of Australia, Member in the General Division (AM)
  'for service to literature as a writer and through assistance and encouragement of writers from non-English speaking backgrounds, to the welfare of refugees and migrants, and to the environment through Trees for Life.'
• Peter Skrzynecki - Order of Australia, Medal in the General Division (OAM)
  'for service to Australian multicultural literature, particularly as a poet.'

South Australian Women Writers Update
The South Australian Women Writers database compiled at Flinders University by Professor Graham Tulloch, Rick Hosking and Anne Chittleborough, and published on the Website of the State Library of South Australia in 1999, is being upgraded by another year's research funded by collaboration between Flinders University and the State Library. Robyn Cadwallader began work on the project in June and will be updating existing records and entering data on newly identified South Australian writers. The State Library is also moving to create links between the database records and a collection of portraits of the writers. The South Australian Women Writers database forms a subset of AustLit.

Architect Inspired by Literature
Delivering a lecture at Parliament House, Canberra on 18 June, architect Romaldo Giurgola revealed that prior to entering his design for the national seat of government he had never been to Australia. His ideas about the country were based on the works of Patrick White and Les Murray, among others. Giurgola said his design was inspired by Australian literature.

2002 Miles Franklin Award
Tim Winton became the third Australian writer to win the Miles Franklin Award three times with the announcement of his win for 2002. Receiving the $28 000 award for Dirt Music, Winton joins Peter Carey and David Ireland as a three-time winner. (Only Thea Astley, with four awards, has won more.) In his acceptance speech, which he had submitted to be read in his absence, Winton revealed his struggle in rewriting the manuscript of Dirt Music and the loss of confidence which accompanied this experience. Winton's other Miles Franklin winners were Shallows in 1984 and Cloudstreet in 1992.

2002 Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Shortlist
Winners of this year's Children's Book Council of Australia Awards will be announced on 16 August. The awards have come a long way since their inauguration in 1966 when the prize was a camellia! After a series of funding arrangements and difficulty in finding an on-going commercial sponsor, the CBCA established the Awards Foundation in late 1995 with the aim of collecting $1 000 000 to support the awards in perpetuity. In just over six years, the Fund has reached $820 000. In addition to the major donors, the Foundation has three Benefactors - Scholastic Australia, Allen & Unwin and Thyne Reid Trust No.1. The shortlist for the 2002 awards can be found on the Children's Book Council of Australia web site or by conducting an Advanced search on AustLit. (To construct the search, choose the work attribute 'Work Award Year' and insert the year: 2002; then choose the work attribute 'Work Award' and insert the phrase: children's book council of australia.)

Mentorship for Julia Leigh
Julia Leigh has been awarded The Rolex Mentor and Protege Art Initiative, 2002 mentorship with Nobel laureate, Toni Morrison, as part of a competition sponsored by the Swiss watchmaker. Leigh was originally nominated, along with five other Australian writers, by Melbourne critic and reviewer, Peter Craven. At the end of an exhaustive selection process she was personally chosen by Morrison. Leigh has moved to Princeton University, New Jersey for the duration of the mentorship where she will receive a stipend of $US25 000. As mentor, Morrison receives an honorarium of $50 000.

Helpmann Award for Batavia
The Australian Opera's production of Batavia at the State Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne in May 2001 has won the 2002 award for Best New Australian Work in the Helpmann Awards for Performing Arts in Australia. Peter Goldsworthy wrote the libretto for the opera which tells of the aftermath of Francisco Pelsaert's fated voyage on the Dutch sailing vessel, Batavia once it had become stranded on the Houtman Abrolhos Islands off Western Australia.

Reaction to Hooky the Cripple
News of Mark 'Chopper' Read's latest publication was first received at AustLit 12 months ago. At that time, AustLit already held records for Read's 9 books in the Chopper series which had been variously promoted as 'Autobiography' or 'Crime' novels. Sales for the series have been estimated at 500 000 copies. Read said that he had had the idea for a children's fable when he was 19 years old. That fable has now been published as Hooky the Cripple : The Grim Tale of a Hunchback Who Triumphs, a 3 000 word tale illustrated by Archibald Prize winner, Adam Cullen. The setting for the fable is 16th century Italy and it tells the story of a hunchback who is tormented on a daily basis for 21 years by the local butcher. Eventually, the hunchback retaliates and stabs the butcher 21 times.

Publication of the book generated protest in early June this year. Interest was sparked within community groups, schools, State Education departments and Federal Parliament. A review of the book's suitability for study in schools was undertaken by AccessEd for the Queensland Department of Education. The review determined that Read's work constituted 'a significant short story rather elegantly written, with an economy of phrase and a subtle vein of humour. ... The book would be suitable for use with senior students for discussions on bullying or on the application of justice'.

Hooky the Cripple is published by the independent Australian publisher, Pluto Press, which specialises in politics and social change issues. Pluto's web site currently hosts a response to the criticism and explains why the decision was made to publish Read's book. The full text of the AccessEd review is also available on this site.

Publishers On-Line
Many Australian publishers can now be accessed via their web sites. Sites generally provide information on new and best selling publications, author biographies, extracts and reviews, news of awards, and resources for various market groups (e.g. students and teachers). Some sites provide for direct purchase of publications.
AustLit is gradually adding records for publisher web sites. Some examples of recent additions are:

• The mainstream and generalist publishers: Allen & Unwin, Angus & Robertson, Penguin Books Australia and Lothian Books.
• Educational and scholarly publishers: Scholastic Australia and University of Queensland Press.
• A publisher with a regional emphasis: the Western Australian Fremantle Arts Centre Press.
• 'Niche' and independent publishers: Magabala Books with its focus on indigenous writers, Five Islands Press which concentrates on Australian poetry and Spinifex Press, a publisher of feminist literature.

The End of the Road
More than 50 years ago, Norman Booth wrote a war-time novel, Up the Dusty Track, about truck drivers operating out of Alice Springs. The Melbourne branch of the English publisher Hutchinson liked the book but their London office thought a novel about Australia too parochial. Before his death in 2001, Booth received the news that NTU Press was to publish his novel. The book has just been released. In commending Booth's work, the NTU Press Bookshop says the story tells of the life of the platoon members who drove their trucks up and down the track from Alice Springs to Larrimah. 'Their conversation is of the difficulties they encounter in a day's work, the families they have left behind, the Aboriginal women, and the political and economic arrangements of a world that is far from sane.'

AustLit users are warned that this section of the newsletter includes the name of an Indigenous writer who has passed away.

Two South Australian women writers with English connections died in May 2002. English-born Connie Frazer came to Australia at the age of 32. She began writing short verse to amuse her son and later developed her poetry around the themes of domestic life and political protest. By the mid-1970s, Frazer was active in the Women's Movement and was also closely associated with the inception of Friendly Street Poets in Adelaide.
Ruth Goldthorpe was born in Adelaide in 1918, but spent over 30 years in England. She returned to Australia in 1962. She joined a number of poetry and drama groups and was a member of several writers' associations. Goldthorpe won a variety of awards for her poetry and she also wrote two non-fiction works.

West Australian Peter Cowan died in early June. Well-known for his novels and collections of short stories, Cowan was also a highly regarded editor of anthologies. During his long association with the University of Western Australia, Cowan was senior tutor in English and later became an honorary research fellow. For an extended period he was editor of Westerly (a role he initially undertook jointly with Bruce Bennett).

Bill Neidjie, sometimes referred to as the Kakadu Man, has died near Kakadu National Park. Neidjie was born in the East Alligator River area. He worked at numerous timber mill camps and also spent 30 years employed on luggers along the northern Australian coast. Neidjie was the last known speaker of the Gagadju language. He was the author a volume of poetry, Story About Feeling published by Magabala Books.

Two other Australians with a national profile have died recently. Ruth Cracknell had been named one of Australia's '100 Living National Treasures' and received many stage and television awards and honorary doctorates in recognition of her career which spanned over 50 years. Cracknell published her autobiography Ruth Cracknell : A Biased Memoir in 1997. In 2000 she wrote Journey from Venice : A Memoir, an account of the sudden illness suffered by her husband, Eric Phillips, while they were in Italy.

Sir John Gorton is credited with initiating many cultural ideas that became policy after his term as Prime Minister. He was an amateur poet and published several works anonymously in The Canberra Times.

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