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Issue Details: First known date: 1996... 1996 Blackbird
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Springwood, Underwood - Rochedale South - Springwood area, Logan City, Brisbane - South East, Brisbane, Queensland,: Big Indian , 1996 .
      Extent: 360p.
      Description: illus., map

Works about this Work

The Legend of the ‘Gentlemen of the Flashing Blade’ : The Canecutter in the Australian Imagination Kerry Boyne , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture , vol. 11 no. 1-2 2022; (p. 45-61)

'The ‘gentlemen of the flashing blade’ laboured in an occupation that no longer exists in Australia: canecutting. It was a hard job done by hard men, and its iconic figure – the canecutter – survives as a Queensland legend, so extensively romanticized in the popular culture of the time as to constitute a subgenre characterized by subject matter and motifs particular to the pre-mechanization sugar country culture. Yet, it may seem like the only canecutters immortalized in the arts are Summer of the Seventeenth Doll’s Roo and Barney. To show the breadth and diversity of this subgenre, and the legend of the canecutter and sugar country culture, this article reviews a selection of novels, memoirs, plays, short stories, cartoons, verse, song, film, television, radio and children’s books. These works address the racial, cultural and industrial politics of the sugar industry and its influence on the economic and social development of Queensland. The parts played by the nineteenth-century communities of indentured South Sea Islanders and the European immigrants who followed are represented along with those of the itinerant Anglos. These works depict, and celebrate, a colourful, often brutal, part of Queensland’s past and an Australian icon comparable with the swaggie or the shearer.' (Publication abstract)  

'Never Forget That The Kanakas Are Men': Fictional Representations of the Enslaved Black Body Carole Ferrier , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Bodies and Voices : The Force-Field of Representation and Discourse in Colonial and Post-Colonial Studies 2008; (p. 205-224)
Untitled Faye Shortal , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 15 no. 2 2001; (p. 78-79)

— Review of Blackbird David Crookes , 1996 single work novel
Jungle Survivor Judy Sands , 1999 single work biography
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 6 March 1999; (p. 8)
A Delightfully Readable Journey Through Imagination Ian McFarlane , 1997 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 30 March 1997; (p. 20)

— Review of Eleven Months in Bunbury James Ricks , 1997 single work novel ; Pub Fiction 1997 anthology short story ; Cafe Royale : Tales of Love and Travel Larry Buttrose , 1997 selected work autobiography ; Make Me an Idol Katherine Scholes , 1996 single work novel ; Blackbird David Crookes , 1996 single work novel
A Delightfully Readable Journey Through Imagination Ian McFarlane , 1997 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 30 March 1997; (p. 20)

— Review of Eleven Months in Bunbury James Ricks , 1997 single work novel ; Pub Fiction 1997 anthology short story ; Cafe Royale : Tales of Love and Travel Larry Buttrose , 1997 selected work autobiography ; Make Me an Idol Katherine Scholes , 1996 single work novel ; Blackbird David Crookes , 1996 single work novel
Untitled Faye Shortal , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 15 no. 2 2001; (p. 78-79)

— Review of Blackbird David Crookes , 1996 single work novel
'Never Forget That The Kanakas Are Men': Fictional Representations of the Enslaved Black Body Carole Ferrier , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Bodies and Voices : The Force-Field of Representation and Discourse in Colonial and Post-Colonial Studies 2008; (p. 205-224)
Jungle Survivor Judy Sands , 1999 single work biography
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 6 March 1999; (p. 8)
The Legend of the ‘Gentlemen of the Flashing Blade’ : The Canecutter in the Australian Imagination Kerry Boyne , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture , vol. 11 no. 1-2 2022; (p. 45-61)

'The ‘gentlemen of the flashing blade’ laboured in an occupation that no longer exists in Australia: canecutting. It was a hard job done by hard men, and its iconic figure – the canecutter – survives as a Queensland legend, so extensively romanticized in the popular culture of the time as to constitute a subgenre characterized by subject matter and motifs particular to the pre-mechanization sugar country culture. Yet, it may seem like the only canecutters immortalized in the arts are Summer of the Seventeenth Doll’s Roo and Barney. To show the breadth and diversity of this subgenre, and the legend of the canecutter and sugar country culture, this article reviews a selection of novels, memoirs, plays, short stories, cartoons, verse, song, film, television, radio and children’s books. These works address the racial, cultural and industrial politics of the sugar industry and its influence on the economic and social development of Queensland. The parts played by the nineteenth-century communities of indentured South Sea Islanders and the European immigrants who followed are represented along with those of the itinerant Anglos. These works depict, and celebrate, a colourful, often brutal, part of Queensland’s past and an Australian icon comparable with the swaggie or the shearer.' (Publication abstract)  

Last amended 19 Aug 2011 12:19:22
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