AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Initially written for The Queenslander as The Burning Mountain of the Interior, this 'Australian tale of adventure' sees a party of explorers travel into the desert in search of gold, some alleged hot springs, and a volcano. The group also hopes to discover the fate of Ludwig Leichhardt expedition. 'After some travail, they discover an unknown race located in a fine-looking country commanding vast gold reserves. The members of this race are distinct from the Aborigines around them, and constitute the degraded remnants of an ancient civilisation once occupying the Australian interior. By the end of the novel, this unknown race is destroyed by [the] erupting volcano, and the explorers are left to inherit their wealth of gold.'
Source: Bellanta, Fabulating the Australian Desert.
Notes
-
Some critics consider Secret of the Australian Desert as falling within the boundaries of science fiction. Graham Stone effectively disputes this in Notes on Australian Science Fiction, however, writing:
There are besides some unusual cave paintings and bother traces of old Asian colony in central Australia including a well builkt tomb and some unidentified writing and metal objects. But the colonist vare long gone and the mystery unresolved. Not actually a lost civilisation plot (since they're no longer there to be found), much less science fiction (p.98).
-
The conclusion of the third part of the Queenslander serialisation records: 'Here ends the The Burning Mountain of the Interior. The sequel to it - The Mystery of the Pocket-book and What it Led To' - will be commenced next week (29 March 1890, p.594).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Beyond Nation? Ludwig Leichhardt’s Transnationalism
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Coolabah , no. 13 2014; (p. 157-178)'Inspired by the conference theme of ‘Looking Back to Look Forward’ this paper examines the multiple ways in which the Prussian explorer of northern Australia, Ludwig Leichhardt, provides possible new directions for rethinking contemporary concepts such as transnationalism and nationalism. While the paper in its genealogical fashion assumes that the past is not simply available to us to be looked upon but rather is made to appear to us through various, material and ideological productions; it is still inspired by the possibility that re-imagining the past in the present can produce alternative and better futures. ' (Author's abstract)
-
Leichhardt after Leichhardt
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 37 no. 4 2013; (p. 537-543)In this essay, the authors review 'a selection of the more influential writings about Leichhardt to demonstrate both the enduring
interest in his life and the vastly different perspectives held in the texts.' (537)
-
Britishness and Australian Popular Fiction : From the Mid-Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 46-66) 'The analysis offered here is [...], a panoptic perspective of the tangled skeins of literary imagination and imitation, gender and genre requirements, editorial control, market considerations and the sheer economics of the international book trade that knotted Australian popular literature into the cultural and economic fabric of the British empire.' (47) -
Ernest Favenc: Less Known as Nineteenth-Century Australian Children's Author
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Lu Rees Archives Notes, Books and Authors , no. 33 2011; (p. 6-9) 'Ernest Favenc (1845-1908) is far better remebered as an historian, short story writer and explorer in northern and western Australia than as an author of a number of popular children's books.' -
Australian Science Fiction : In Search of the 'Feel'
2007-2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Zeitschrift fur Australienstudien , no. 21-22 2007-2008; (p. 65-72)
-
Publications Received
1895
single work
review
— Appears in: The Queenslander , 28 December 1895; (p. 1218)
— Review of The Secret of the Australian Desert 1890 single work children's fiction -
Untitled
1895
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Mail , 14 December vol. 60 no. 1849 1895; (p. 1221)
— Review of The Secret of the Australian Desert 1890 single work children's fiction -
New Publications
1895
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Mail , 14 December vol. 60 no. 1849 1895; (p. 1221)
— Review of The Secret of the Australian Desert 1890 single work children's fiction -
Lost and Found Cities and People : In Australia
2001
single work
review
bibliography
biography
— Appears in: Notes on Australian Science Fiction 2001; (p. 96-100)
— Review of The Lost Explorer : An Australian Story 1890 single work novel ; The Savage Queen : A Romance of the Natives of Van Dieman's Land 1891 single work novel ; The Golden Idol : A Tale of Adventures in Australia and New Zealand 1891 single work novel ; The Golden Lake, or, The Marvellous History of a Journey Through the Great Lone Land of Australia 1890 single work novel ; The Valley Council; Or, Leaves from the Journal of Thomas Bateman of Canbelego Station, N.S.W. 1891 single work novel ; The Secret of the Australian Desert 1890 single work children's fiction ; The Fallen Race 1892 single work novel ; Mostyn Stayne 1897 single work novel ; Marooned on Australia : Being the Narration by Diedrich Buys of His Discoveries and Exploits in Terra Australis Incognita about the Year 1630 1896 single work children's fiction ; Adventure of the Broad Arrow : An Australian Romance. 1897 single work novel ; An Australian Bush Track 1896 single work novel ; The Treasure Cave of the Blue Mountains 1898 single work children's fiction ; The Last Lemurian : A Westralian Romance 1896 single work novel ; Eureka 1899 single work novel -
An Australian Boys' Book
1895
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 23 November vol. 16 no. 823 1895; (p. 2)
— Review of The Secret of the Australian Desert 1890 single work children's fiction -
Fabulating the Australian Desert : Australia's Lost Race Romances, 1890-1908
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Philament , April no. 3 2004; -
Dead White Male Heroes : Ludwig Leichhardt and Ned Kelly in Australian Fictions
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Imagining Australia : Literature and Culture in the New New World 2004; (p. 23-52) - y Mobilising Fictions or, Romancing the Australian Desert, 1890-1908 St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2009 Z1238252 2003 single work criticism 'This paper looks at Australia's "lost race romances", published between 1890 and 1908, so-called because they described the discovery of an unknown race in the middle of the Australian desert...' (Author's abstract)
-
Lemuria and Australian Dreams of an Inland Sea
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Lemuria , Winter vol. 1 no. 1 2006; (p. 32-47) Cathcart reads a range of 'Lemurian novels,' examining their 'uncomplicated optimism about the future of White Australia, their trust that the key to that future lay beneath the earth, in the Great Australian Basin, and their attempts to grapple with the deadly impact of colonisation on the Aborigines who resisted' (44). -
Australian Science Fiction : In Search of the 'Feel'
2007-2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Zeitschrift fur Australienstudien , no. 21-22 2007-2008; (p. 65-72)