AustLit

'The theme of lost children in literature and in life took a firm hold of people's imaginations in early colonial Australia. 'Lost Child', a poem of lament for a child 'taken' by the bush, published in 1826, is perhaps the first on that subject in Australian literature. The lost child as an enduring theme found exquisite expression in Frederick McCubbin's 1886 painting of that name. The bush inspired both fear and fascination in settlers. Its haunting, even hostile character found a place in popular culture well into the twentieth century and the novel Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay, at one time a student of McCubbin, continues to exert a tragic appeal even today.' (p. 134)