'This article examines children's novels and short stories published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that feature bushfires and the ceremonial fires associated with Indigenous Australians. It suggests that British children's novels emphasise the horror of bushfires and the human struggle involved in conquering them. In contrast, Australian-authored children's fictions represent less anthropocentric understandings of the environment. New attitudes toward the environment are made manifest in Australian women's fiction including J. M. Whitfield's ‘The Spirit of the Bushfire’ (1898), Ethel Pedley's Dot and the Kangaroo (1899), Olga D. A. Ernst's ‘The Fire Elves’ (1904), and Amy Eleanor Mack's ‘The Gallant Gum Trees’ (1910). Finally, the article proposes that adult male conquest and control of the environment evident in British fiction is transferred to a child protagonist in Mary Grant Bruce's A Little Bush Maid (1910), dispensing with the long-standing association between the Australian bush and threats to children.' (Publication summary)
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Enjoyed by generations of young Australians since its publication in 1910, A Little Bush Maid is the ultimate, idyllic tale of an adventurous girl growing up in the Australian bush.
'Billabong, a large cattle and sheep property in the Australian countryside, is home to twelve-year-old Norah Linton, her widowed father and her older brother, Jim. Norah's prim and proper aunts, who live in the city, consider she is in danger of "growing up wild" - riding all over Billabong on her beloved pony, Bobs, helping with mustering, and joining in all the holiday fun when Jim and his friends come home from boarding school. A fishing trip results in unexpected drama when they discover a mysterious stranger camped in the bush. Who is this stranger and why is he there? Norah's resourcefulness is tested to the full!' (Publication summary : 2015 edition)
Notes
-
Some imprints have title A Little Bushmaid.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Imagining Colonial Environments : Fire in Australian Children's Literature
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: International Research in Children’s Literature , July vol. 13 no. 1 2020; (p. 1-14) -
y
From Colonial to Modern: Transnational Girlhood in Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand Children's Literature, 1840-1940
Toronto
:
University of Toronto Press
,
2018
15039944
2018
multi chapter work
criticism
'Through a comparison of Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand texts published between 1840 and 1940, From Colonial to Modern develops a new history of colonial girlhoods revealing how girlhood in each of these emerging nations reflects a unique political, social, and cultural context.
'Print culture was central to the definition, and redefinition, of colonial girlhood during this period of rapid change. Models of girlhood are shared between settler colonies and contain many similar attitudes towards family, the natural world, education, employment, modernity, and race, yet, as the authors argue, these texts also reveal different attitudes that emerged out of distinct colonial experiences. Unlike the imperial model representing the British ideal, the transnational girl is an adaptation of British imperial femininity and holds, for example, a unique perception of Indigenous culture and imperialism. Drawing on fiction, girls’ magazines, and school magazine, the authors shine a light on neglected corners of the literary histories of these three nations and strengthen our knowledge of femininity in white settler colonies.' (Publication summary)
-
She Rides Astride : Mateship, Morality and the Outback-Colonial Girl
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies , vol. 18 no. 1 2013; (p. 28-39)'This article focuses on the representation of girlhood, gender and mateship particular to Australia, and to a lesser extent New Zealand, within the context of an emerging nationalism, social change and political upheaval. In it, I apply an illustrator’s perspective to interrogating the cultural significance of Mary Grant Bruce’s iconic outback heroine, Norah of Billabong Station. By comparatively examining Norah’s sequential representation in the narrative text, and the illustrations produced by John MacFarlane, I argue Bruce and her little-known, and rarely discussed immigrant illustrator combined to create an ideal and national type that was counter to anything that had been created for colonial girl readers before.' (Author's abstract)
- y Requiem for A Little Bush Maid St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2009 Z1518498 2008 single work criticism
-
Untitled
1997
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , February vol. 41 no. 1 1997; (p. 26)
— Review of A Little Bush Maid 1905 single work children's fiction
-
Untitled
1997
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , February vol. 41 no. 1 1997; (p. 26)
— Review of A Little Bush Maid 1905 single work children's fiction -
From the Word Go : Books for Younger Readers
1992
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 143 1992; (p. 67-69)
— Review of A Little Bush Maid 1905 single work children's fiction ; Keep Me Company 1992 single work picture book ; Queen Becky 1992 single work picture book -
Changing Perspectives : The Implied Reader in Australian Children's Literature 1841-1994
1995
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature in Education , March vol. 26 no. 1 1995; (p. 25-38) - y Requiem for A Little Bush Maid St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2009 Z1518498 2008 single work criticism
-
Mary Grant Bruce
Madeline Buck
(interviewer),
1926
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Australian Woman's Mirror , 23 November vol. 2 no. 52 1926; (p. 8) -
Too Jolly by Half
1993
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 149 1993; (p. 58-60) -
The Real Australian Girl? Some Post-Federation Writers for Girls
1993
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: The Time to Write : Australian Women Writers 1890-1930 1993; (p. 73-87)
- Northern Victoria, Victoria,
- Bush,
- 1900s