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'Renowned historian Jill Roe, whose grandparents were early settlers of South Australia's west coast, revisits her mid-century childhood in what was one of Australia's most remote regions.
'Rhythms of work and play were punctuated by moments - the annual show, a visit from young Queen Elizabeth - that connected farming lives, however briefly, to a changing world.
'With urbanisation comes uncertainties. As her story unfolds, Jill Roe contemplates the future of Eyre Peninsula and the role of regional Australia in this young century. Our Fathers Cleared the Bush is a charming, thoughtful blend of history, memoir and ideas.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Jill Roe : Our Fathers Cleared the Bush, Remembering Eyre Peninsula
2017
single work
review
— Appears in: Jessie Street National Women's Library Newsletter , February vol. 28 no. 1 2017; (p. 6)
— Review of Our Fathers Cleared the Bush : Remembering Eyre Peninsula 2016 single work autobiography 'When Jill Roe was a schoolgirl in Adelaide she completed a major project on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia for her Leaving examination in geography. At 130 pages, handwritten in pen and ink in an exercise book with handdrawn maps and diagrams, drawings and pressings of native flora, and illustrated with photographs taken with a Box Brownie camera, it was a substantial piece of work. As she says in the introduction to this book, it took her a long time to return to the study of Eyre Peninsula; we are lucky that she did.'(Introduction)
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From ‘Wild Jill’ to Stella Miles Franklin
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: History Australia , vol. 14 no. 4 2017; (p. 579-583)'Simone de Beauvoir noted that you don’t often make new friends after age 60. But Jill and I enjoyed what you could call a late friendship. Jill came to the ANU as a visitor after she retired in 2003 and we immediately fell into an easy friendship. We were born just a year apart – Jill in 1940 and me a year later. We were both country girls, Jill a farm girl from Eyre Peninsula and me a small-town girl from southern Queensland. We had both fled rural life in the late 1950s and been the first in our families to go to university in the early 1960s. When Jill was writing her final book, Our Fathers Cleared the Bush – her memoir of her childhood in that remote corner of South Australia – we found that we shared many experiences, despite the distance between South Australia and Queensland and their different histories.1 ' (Introduction)
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[Book Review] Our Fathers Cleared the Bush : Remembering Eyre Peninsula
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society , June vol. 103 no. 1 2017; (p. 99-100)'In 2005 I recorded an interview for the National Library of Australia with the historian Professor Emerita Jill Roe at Macquarie University, where she was a founding member of staff (NLA, Oral TRC 5383). In the interview, Roe engagingly recalled her childhood as a farmer’s daughter on Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. In retirement Roe said she would revisit and write a history of Eyre Peninsula. This pleasing book is the result.' (Introduction)
-
Jill Roe : Our Fathers Cleared the Bush : Remembering Eyre Peninsula
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , July 2017;'Our Fathers Cleared the Bush is a captivating combination of regional history and memoir.'
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Country Girl
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: Quadrant , December vol. 60 no. 12 2016; (p. 72-73) 'The Eyre Peninsula, a vast plain of golden grain, golden fleece, golden grass, scrub, and not many people, is one of Australia’s less glamorous destinations, but unlike some who have reached the top, academic historian Jill Roe presents her rural homeland with affection. She likes the undistinguished scenery, the people—many of them her friends and relations—and the solid industriousness.' (Introduction)
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Review : Our Fathers Cleared the Bush
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 22 October 2016; (p. 36)
— Review of Our Fathers Cleared the Bush : Remembering Eyre Peninsula 2016 single work autobiography -
Jill Roe : Our Fathers Cleared the Bush, Remembering Eyre Peninsula
2017
single work
review
— Appears in: Jessie Street National Women's Library Newsletter , February vol. 28 no. 1 2017; (p. 6)
— Review of Our Fathers Cleared the Bush : Remembering Eyre Peninsula 2016 single work autobiography 'When Jill Roe was a schoolgirl in Adelaide she completed a major project on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia for her Leaving examination in geography. At 130 pages, handwritten in pen and ink in an exercise book with handdrawn maps and diagrams, drawings and pressings of native flora, and illustrated with photographs taken with a Box Brownie camera, it was a substantial piece of work. As she says in the introduction to this book, it took her a long time to return to the study of Eyre Peninsula; we are lucky that she did.'(Introduction)
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Our Fathers Cleared the Bush, by Jill Roe
2016
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 16 no. 2 2016; 'Now Professor Emerita at Macquarie University, Jill Roe is well known for her influential work in Australian history and social policy history, and in particular for her biography of Stella Miles Franklin and volume of letters between Franklin and her friends, My Congenials. This latest work is a very readable, sometimes personal, social history of the Eyre Peninsula where she was born and grew up. ‘[W]ritten in later life and with a renewed sense of place,’ as she explains in her Introduction, this book seeks to capture ‘regional experience over time’ (ix).' (Introduction) -
Country Girl
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: Quadrant , December vol. 60 no. 12 2016; (p. 72-73) 'The Eyre Peninsula, a vast plain of golden grain, golden fleece, golden grass, scrub, and not many people, is one of Australia’s less glamorous destinations, but unlike some who have reached the top, academic historian Jill Roe presents her rural homeland with affection. She likes the undistinguished scenery, the people—many of them her friends and relations—and the solid industriousness.' (Introduction) -
Jill Roe : Our Fathers Cleared the Bush : Remembering Eyre Peninsula
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , July 2017;'Our Fathers Cleared the Bush is a captivating combination of regional history and memoir.'
-
[Book Review] Our Fathers Cleared the Bush : Remembering Eyre Peninsula
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society , June vol. 103 no. 1 2017; (p. 99-100)'In 2005 I recorded an interview for the National Library of Australia with the historian Professor Emerita Jill Roe at Macquarie University, where she was a founding member of staff (NLA, Oral TRC 5383). In the interview, Roe engagingly recalled her childhood as a farmer’s daughter on Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. In retirement Roe said she would revisit and write a history of Eyre Peninsula. This pleasing book is the result.' (Introduction)
-
From ‘Wild Jill’ to Stella Miles Franklin
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: History Australia , vol. 14 no. 4 2017; (p. 579-583)'Simone de Beauvoir noted that you don’t often make new friends after age 60. But Jill and I enjoyed what you could call a late friendship. Jill came to the ANU as a visitor after she retired in 2003 and we immediately fell into an easy friendship. We were born just a year apart – Jill in 1940 and me a year later. We were both country girls, Jill a farm girl from Eyre Peninsula and me a small-town girl from southern Queensland. We had both fled rural life in the late 1950s and been the first in our families to go to university in the early 1960s. When Jill was writing her final book, Our Fathers Cleared the Bush – her memoir of her childhood in that remote corner of South Australia – we found that we shared many experiences, despite the distance between South Australia and Queensland and their different histories.1 ' (Introduction)
