The Woolcot ’s middle class Anglo-Saxon lifestyle contrasts strongly with the Australian bush landscape and the tough and competent settlers who called it home. Here the city-bush divide is brought into sharp relief. This is illustrated in the following paragraph about the couple who run the property.
Pastoral life is later experienced when the family visit Yarrahappini, a profitable cattle station in outback Australia. Most of the time they run wild at their rambling suburban home which mirrors more rural settings with its wilderness, sheds and wide open spaces. The parental guidance they receive is haphazard at best. Set on the banks of the Parramatta River in Sydney, there is a sense in which the children are deeply influenced by their natural environment. Led by the vivacious and cheeky Judy, the siblings find themselves in constant trouble. The storyline dives immediately into the war of wills between Captain John Woolcot and his seven energetic children as they navigate family life in their large home ‘Misrule ’. It is no wonder the book, now widely regarded as an Australian classic, has made it onto the IPA’s Australian Canon of great literary works. Seven Little Australians sets out with stunning precision the dual cultural identity split between the city and the bush which is still relevant today. Turner not only weighs into this national debate in her book, she leads it. A sense of youthful optimism pervaded the conversation around the federation movement and attracted interest in forging an Australian type through literature. “There is a lurking sparkle of joyousness and rebellion and mischief in nature here, and therefore in children.” In 1894 when the book was first published, Australia was teetering on the brink of nationhood.
“It may be that the land and the people are young-hearted together,” Turner writes. It is ultimately about the birth of a nation, its people and the myth which holds the two together.įrom its opening lines a vivid comparison is drawn between the fresh-faced, independent Woolcot children and the emerging national psyche. Ethel Turner’s Seven Little Australians is a literary masterpiece which constructs a strong sense of national identity that is distinctly Australian.
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