of Donna Rawlins, the soft, realistic pastel detail of Jane Tanner and many more. Robert
Ingpen’s classical engraving style is probably the best known since he won the coveted
Hans Christian Andersen award in 1986. Muir (1977) and Holden (1988) give details of
the many illustrators active in Australia.
Collections of original illustrations for children’s books have become the subject for
curators, exhibitions and sales. A home for Australian children’s books and original
illustrations was established in 1973 by Joyce and Courtney Oldmeadow at Dromkeen,
a rambling old house in rural Victoria, and is now visited by international visitors who
seek exhibitions of historical and contemporary works. Books Illustrated, housed in
Melbourne exhibits contemporary works and offers some for sale. Both places also
organise workshops and meetings of authors and artists with visiting public and groups
of schoolchildren.
Television came to Australia along with the Olympic Games in 1956, yet this medium
did not undermine the extraordinary growth of children’s literature. The 1960s saw both
a qualitative and quantitative increase in the publication of Australian children’s
literature. Australian publishing houses opened; British publishing houses established
Australian branches; printing in Hong Kong and Singapore reduced publication costs;
publishers began appointing editors such as Joyce Saxby, Barbara Ker Wilson and Anne
Bower Ingram whose task it was to specialise in children’s literature; and the book trade
began actively to seek translation for their holdings. Literary adaptations to film,
television, video, hypertext and multimedia outlets continue to be significant features of
the 1990s, with the potential demise of the book posing a substantial threat to many in
conventional book publishing. Once again, children’s literature, its writers, producers,
readers and promoters see the need to come to grips with technological change.
Australia was once known critically as ‘white Australia as the immigration schemes
following the First World War and again following the Second, accepted immigrants only
from Britain and continental Europe. The incentive was seen by politicians of the time
as: ‘We must populate this country or we will never be able to hold it (Greenwood 1955:
315). The core of government policy was a forced pace of development with the
assistance of sponsored migration and land settlement, but at the grass roots level the
workers and ordinary suburban people feared the influx of cheap labour at a time when
unemployment levels were rising. This conflict endures, but strenuous efforts are being
made to redefine and celebrate national identity through the recognition of difference.
Around one hundred different languages, plus the Aboriginal languages are now
spoken, apart from English; current ideology has moved away from assimilation and
endeavours to recognise ‘difference within the society and its cultures and to encourage
all to sustain pride in their origins, while making their first commitment to Australia.
How the political and social can motivate the literary can be seen in the evolution of
the Multicultural Children’s Literature Award which is funded by the Office of
Multicultural Affairs within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. In 1990
there were five titles eligible for the award and by 1993 this had grown to forty-nine
titles. Understandings of the concept of multiculturalism differ but award-winners are
those stories in which the different races and cultures merge as a natural course of events
as in Libby Gleeson’s Big Dog (1991) where a Vietnamese dragon (street festival costume
style) helps two Australian children overcome their fear of a savage dog. However, most
840 THE WORLD OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE