science, geology, anthropology and morality, amidst occasional adventures and
shipwrecks.
There followed many titles, particularly adventure stories set in the colonies amidst
pioneering struggles, hazardous explorations, encounters with ‘blacks’, bushrangers and
escaped convicts; although the distinction between adventures for adolescent boys and
adults’ adventure stories was not always clear. (Niall’s focus on book characters, their
values and adventures gives a good coverage of the period (1984)). Some of the
publications of this time were essentially travel documents by people who visited the
colonies for a brief period: one such book was William Howitt’s A Boy’s Adventures in the
Wilds of Australia: Or Herbert’s Note Book (1854) which contains descriptive details of
the colonies, their flora and fauna, amid adventurous activities. The colonies were at
least ten months’ sailing time from Europe, but the cultural ties remained strong.
As the six colonies became more settled, democratically elected members entered
parliament, and free immigration from Britain ended for all time the transportation of
England’s convicts; wealth from gold, the sale of wool and then wheat, strong trade
union stands and the evolution of a Labour Party, over protectionism and free trade,
together prompted the Federation of States. For fifty years this ‘rising spirit’ of
democracy was given voice in various ways until the Commonwealth of Australia was
proclaimed in 1901. The idealism of this period was strong and the nation’s writers and
educators were receptive to the influence of educational philosophers of Europe—
Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Dewey—who were responsible for the development of a child-
centred approach to education. Indirectly, their impact was felt on the processes of
cultural reproduction in the newly declared nation.
At this time, the literature for children which reflected the stable environment and
which developed from strength to strength, was the family story. Its antecedents were
clearly established in the USA and Britain, and Australian family stories emerged in
response to these and the lively competition in publishing. Australia’s best and most
enduring example of the family story is Ethel Turner’s Seven Little Australians (1894).
Fun, affection, trouble, strife and authoritarian paternalism set the tone for books about
family events in the city. Turner wrote over thirty novels for children and adolescents,
and so earned a significant place in Australian literary history. Mary Grant Bruce and
her fifteen Billabong novels (from A Little Bush Maid (1910) to Billabong Riders (1942))
are equally important in the world of Australian children’s fiction, although she writes of
‘mateship’ and life on a well established pastoral property (Alexander 1979; Niall 1979).
Reading with today’s values, critics (and perhaps child readers) object to the chauvinism
and racism which reflected the values of their day, but the books retain their popularity
and have appeared in edited editions which omit the offending segments of text. Debate
continues, questioning the appropriateness of such editions.
As in England, so too in Australia, school stories developed during this period,
exploring the interpersonal friendships between young girls: Louise Mac’s Teens (1897)
and its sequels were set in Sydney. The nation’s writers, compelled by the spirit of
optimism in the new nation, were beginning to write for their own young readers—rather
than all that was good and wholesome being seen as having to come from England.
Books which broke from the didactic tradition and which sought primarily to entertain
emerge as distinctive contributions to Australian children’s literature. An early example
834 THE WORLD OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE