AustLit

'In his 2006 thesis, “‘Staying Bush’ – A Study of Gay Men Living in Rural Areas”, author Edward Green described his subject as the “largely hidden and untold story of gay men living in rural areas”. That was a pivotal year for gay men living in the bush, with Australian television broadcasters platforming two of their stories. In the space of one 12-month period, this cohort went from “hidden and untold” to prime time. From as early as 1989, rural politician Bob Katter had been declaring that he would “walk to Bourke backwards if the poof population of North Queensland is any more than 0.001 per cent”. Analysing media and popular culture, this article explores the visibility and portrayal of rural gay men in Australia prior to and after 2006. In spite of Katter’s minuscule population estimates, the rural gay cohort continues to defy assumptions.' (Publication abstract)

'Best known for her “crying mother” poem written in response to the Myall Creek massacre in 1838, the Anglo-Irish poet Eliza Hamilton Dunlop (1796–1880) is a transcolonial figure with familial, literary and political connections to Ireland, India and Australia. Raised by her paternal grandmother in Ireland, her father worked as an attorney in India (where she would travel in her 20s), while her second husband, David Dunlop, was deeply involved in progressive Ulster politics before becoming the police magistrate in Wollombi and Macdonald River in New South Wales. This new edited collection by Anna Johnston and Elizabeth Webby addresses the scholarly lacunae on Dunlop, shifting the dominance of readings of “The Aboriginal Mother” (1838) in favour of emphasising the transcolonialism of Dunlop’s writing and embedding her work within a global print network.' (Introduction)