Barbara Baynton   Bush Studies (Collins/Angus & Robertson UK; HarperCollins US; Angus & Robertson Aus). A collection of nineteenth-century bush stories written from the female perspective.

 

Rolf Boldrewood   Robbery Under Arms (Currency Press UK; HarperCollins Aus). The story of Captain Starlight, a notorious bushranger and rustler around the Queensland borders.

Marcus Clarke   For the Term of his Natural Life (Penguin & Oxford UP UK; HarperCollins US; Angus & Robertson Aus). Written in 1870 in somewhat overblown prose, this romantic tragedy is based on actual events in Tasmania's once notorious prison settlement.

Miles Franklin   My Brilliant Career (Virago UK; St Martin's Press US o/p; Imprint Aus). A novel about a spirited young girl in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Victoria who refuses to conform.

May Gibbs   Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (Angus & Robertson Aus hb, Bluegum Aus pb). A timeless children's favourite: the illustrated adventures of two little creatures who live inside gumnuts.

Barbara Hanrahan   The Scent of Eucalyptus (Trafalgar US; University of Queensland Press Aus). This first novel by the late South Australian writer captures the essence of Adelaide in the 1960s.

Xavier Herbert   Capricornia (Imprint Aus). An indignant and allegorical saga of the brutal and haphazard settlement of the land of Capricornia (tropical Northern Territory thinly disguised).

George Johnston   My Brother Jack (Chivers US o/p; Imprint Aus). The first in a disturbing trilogy set in Melbourne suburbia between the wars, which develops into a semifictional attempt to dissipate the guilt Johnston felt at being disillusioned with, and finally leaving, his native land.

Thomas Keneally   The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (Penguin UK, Aus; Viking Penguin US o/p). A prize-winning novel which delves deep into the psyche of an Aboriginal outlaw, tracing his inexorable descent into murder and crime. Sickening, brutal and compelling.

Henry Lawson Ballads, poems and stories from Australia's best-loved chroniclers come in a wide array of collections. A few to seek out are: Henry Lawson Bush Ballads (Angus & Robertson Aus), Henry Lawson Favourites (Penguin Aus) and While the Billy Boils - Poetry (Penguin Aus).

Norman Lindsay   The Magic Pudding (Angus & Robertson Aus). A whimsical tale of some very strange men and their grumpy, flavour-changing and endless pudding; a children's classic with very adult humour.

Ruth Park   The Harp in the South (Penguin Aus). First published in 1948, this first book in a trilogy is a well-loved tale of inner-Sydney slum life in 1940s Surry Hills. The spirited Darcy family's battle against poverty provides memorable characters.

A.B. ("Banjo") Paterson Australia's most famous bush balladeer, author of "Waltzing Matilda" and "The Man from Snowy River", who helped romanticize the bush's mystique. Some of the many titles published include Banjo Paterson's Favourites (Faber & Faber UK) and Man From Snowy River and Other Verses (Angus & Robertson Aus).

Henry Handel Richardson   The Getting of Wisdom (Virago UK; Mercury House Inc US; Minerva Aus). A gangly country girl's experience of a snobby boarding school in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Melbourne; like Miles Franklin, Richardson was actually a female writer.

Nevil Shute   A Town Like Alice (Mandarin UK, Aus). A wartime romance which tells of a woman's bravery, endurance and enterprise, both in the Malayan jungle and in the Australian Outback where she strives to create the town of the title.

Christina Stead   For Love Alone (Virago UK; Harcourt Brace & Co US o/p; Imprint Aus). Set largely around Sydney Harbour, where the late author grew up, this novel follows the obsessive Teresa Hawkins, a poor but artistic girl from a large, unconventional family, who scrounges and saves to head for London and love.

Randolph Stow   The Merry-go-round in the Sea (Penguin Aus). An endearing tale of a young boy growing up in rural Western Australia during World War II.

Kylie Tennant   Ride on Stranger (Imprint Aus). First published in 1943, this is a humorous portrait of Sydney between the two world wars, seen through the eyes of newcomer Shannon Hicks.

Patrick White Considered dense and symbolic - even visionary (though some claim misogynistic) - White's novels can be heavy going, but try and plough through Voss , A Fringe of Leaves or The Twyborn Affair (all Penguin), the last a contemporary exploration of ambiguous sexuality.