Australian quotes

Grannie remarked that I might have the spirit of an Australian but I had by no means the manners of a lady.

-of Bin Bin
My Brilliant Career, ch.19.

I am proud that I am an Australian, a daughter of the Southern Cross, a child of the mighty bush. I am thankful I am a peasant, a part of the bone and muscle of my nation, and earn my bread by the sweat of my brow, as man was meant to do. I rejoice I was not born a parasite, one of the blood-suckers who loll on velvet and satin, crushed from the proceeds of human sweat and blood and souls.

-of Bin Bin
My Brilliant Career, ch.38.

If you wish to understand me at all (and to write an autobiography is only to open a window into one's heart) you must understand first and foremost, that I am an Australian† I shall always come back to rest in the shadow of the blue mountains, in the heart of this vast, deserted continent which gave me birth.

- Dame Nellie real name Helen Mitchell Melba
  Melodies and Memories, ch.1.

Why should not the name of an Australian be equal to that of a Briton†to that of a citizen of the proudest country under the sun? Make yourselves a united people, appear before the world as one, and the dream of going 'home' will die away.

- Sir Henry Parkes
  Speech to theAustralian Federation Conference, Feb.

I am most grateful to the CLF [Commonwealth Literary Fund] for providing the funds to give these lectures in Australian literature, but unfortunately they have neglected to provide any literature. I will lecture therefore on D H Lawrence's 'Kangaroo'.

-John Innes Mackintosh Stewart
  Quoted in the London Magazine, Nov1985.

In all directions stretched the Great Australian Emptiness, in which the mind is the least of possessions†and the march of material ugliness does not raise a quiver from the average nerves. It was the exaltation of the'average'that made me panic most.

- Patrick Victor Martindale White
  Essay on his literary career, in Australian Letters,'The Prodigal Son', vol.1, no.3, Apr.

Above all I was determined to prove that the Australian novel is not necessarily the dreary, dun-coloured offspring of journalistic realism.

- Patrick Victor Martindale White
  Essay on his literary career, in Australian Letters,'The Prodigal Son', vol.1, no.3, Apr.