What do you think?
Rate this book
Her Sunburnt Country: The Extraordinary Literary Life of Dorothea Mackellar
The official biography of Australian poet and writer Dorothea Mackellar, author of the celebrated poem ‘My Country.’
'I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains…’
Though many Australians know lines from Dorothea Mackellar’s classic poem ‘My Country’ by heart, very little has been written about the poet’s extraordinary life. From her childhood and youth in Sydney’s Point Piper, to discovering her love for the Australian landscape on the family farm in Gunnedah, Dorothea engaged with the intellectual elite of Sydney and abroad as she embarked on a decades-long literary career that saw her linked to some of the leading lights of her day.
A keen traveller, Dorothea ventured as far as Japan, Egypt and the Caribbean between longer stints in Europe. In the heart of literary London, she socialised with Joseph Conrad and Ezra Pound. At home, she counted among her friends Ether Turner, the famed war correspondent Charles Bean, and journalistic royalty in the form of the Fairfax family. Never before published letters and diaries reveal her unorthodox relationship with her best friend and collaborator Ruth Bedford.
Battling against a masculine tradition of Australian bush poetry led by Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, Dorothea Mackellar boldly carved out a place for herself, leaving an indelible mark on the Australian imagination. Now, for the first time, the poet's unconventional life story is told – a hidden gem of Australian history, and a tale of one woman’s extraordinary passion for her poetry, her family and her country.
'I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains…’
Though many Australians know lines from Dorothea Mackellar’s classic poem ‘My Country’ by heart, very little has been written about the poet’s extraordinary life. From her childhood and youth in Sydney’s Point Piper, to discovering her love for the Australian landscape on the family farm in Gunnedah, Dorothea engaged with the intellectual elite of Sydney and abroad as she embarked on a decades-long literary career that saw her linked to some of the leading lights of her day.
A keen traveller, Dorothea ventured as far as Japan, Egypt and the Caribbean between longer stints in Europe. In the heart of literary London, she socialised with Joseph Conrad and Ezra Pound. At home, she counted among her friends Ether Turner, the famed war correspondent Charles Bean, and journalistic royalty in the form of the Fairfax family. Never before published letters and diaries reveal her unorthodox relationship with her best friend and collaborator Ruth Bedford.
Battling against a masculine tradition of Australian bush poetry led by Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, Dorothea Mackellar boldly carved out a place for herself, leaving an indelible mark on the Australian imagination. Now, for the first time, the poet's unconventional life story is told – a hidden gem of Australian history, and a tale of one woman’s extraordinary passion for her poetry, her family and her country.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2023
10 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 14, 2024
When I taught refugees, I would always teach them this poem and explain it's iconic status in the canon of Australian literature. I always got them to learn the first and second verse. Too many Australians, when asked to recite this poem start with, “I love a sunburnt country . . . . “ Whereas this is the second verse I told them if their Australian identity was ever challenged to quote the first two versus and then ask the accuser to continue.
I heard the biographer, Deborah Fitzgerald, interviewed on Late Night Live by Philip Adams. The interview piqued my interest. I had taught Lawson and Paterson to classes all the way to Year 12, yet I cannot remember Mackellar being dealt with in the same depth. Every primary school child learned “My Country” but little if any of Mackellar’s other literary work was taught. I knew none of her other writings.
Why have Lawson and Paterson been seen as the mainstays of Australian bush poetry and Mackellar, her literary works and life have been ignored?
Her poems were different to her male contemporaries like Paterson, Lawson and Denis. Her poems painted portraits of landscapes. Her words were brush strokes of colour and light. Like the other Australian poets of her time Aboriginal people do not enter the poems. It is probably best described as racism by blindness. Aborigines played a very small part in early Australian literature.
Dorothea (not Dorothy as you will often hear) had an exceptionally privileged life. She was born into a wealthy, well connected bourgeoise family who lived on a large estate on Point Piper, Sydney. The family also had substantial properties in the Hunter Valley and on the Liverpool Plains near Gunnedah.
Catastrophe struck the family when in 1900 her older brother, Keith was killed while fighting in the Boer War. A tragedy that lingered over Dorothea for many a year.
This biography reads like a Jane Austin novel with Mackellar being Elizabeth Bennet, and numerous Mr. Darcies making fleeting appearances. Ms Mackellar never married.
She wrote most of her poetry in her teens and twenties. The wealth of her family gave her the opportunity to travel extensively. She published much poetry and several novels. Her literary output was supported by her close friendship with Ruth Bedford. Although she lived a wealthy secure life and led an active social life she was visited by the ‘black dog’ of depression. In those days it was referred to as ‘nerves’.
As the reader travels through the biography world events (Boer War, WW1, conscription referendum, the Great Depression WW2) appear fleetingly in the background.
During the last quarter of the book Dorothea’s father and then mother die. Sadly, later both her younger brothers pre-decease her, also many of her lifelong friends passed away. Dorothea’s health steadily declined, and she is in and out of hospital. She met Patrick White on several occasions and Di Morrissey tells of her contact with Dorothea when she was a young girl living in an isolated Pittwater community. It was from her time spent in the northern beaches area that Mackellar Girls High School and the federal electorate of Mackellar were named.
Fitzgerald discusses Mackellar’s poetry and mentions that accusation that Dorothea Mackellar was ‘a one hit wonder.’ There is probably some truth in this, but I would argue that ‘My Country’ was such a perfect poem that like, “Catch 22, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in a Rye” were so good the author had difficulty creating an equivalent.
I must plead guilty to the crime of not having read Mackellar’s other works. I intend to make amends. It appears that she did write other quality poems, novels etc. Was it because she was a woman? Was it because she didn’t promote herself enough? Was it because she came from such a privileged background? That she hasn’t gained the literary status of many of her male contemporaries.
Sadly lines from her poem are stolen by the ignorant global warming denialists. The world has changed since she wrote this poem. The world population is now over 8 Billion when she wrote the poem it was 1.6 Billion. In 1900 CO2 in atmosphere was 291 ppm, 2023 424 ppm.
In 1968 she was awarded an Order of the British Empire. I totally agree with her comment, ‘about time.’
In some ways I am surprised I enjoyed this biography as much as I did. Like most Australians I knew little of Dorothea other than that one poem. The biography is not an interpretive literary masterpiece, but it does tell a quiet story of a quiet unassuming Australian woman who should play a larger role in this country’s literature.
Giving stars is not important, but this biography gave me such joy in getting to know this beautiful, delightful, bright woman.
I heard the biographer, Deborah Fitzgerald, interviewed on Late Night Live by Philip Adams. The interview piqued my interest. I had taught Lawson and Paterson to classes all the way to Year 12, yet I cannot remember Mackellar being dealt with in the same depth. Every primary school child learned “My Country” but little if any of Mackellar’s other literary work was taught. I knew none of her other writings.
Why have Lawson and Paterson been seen as the mainstays of Australian bush poetry and Mackellar, her literary works and life have been ignored?
Her poems were different to her male contemporaries like Paterson, Lawson and Denis. Her poems painted portraits of landscapes. Her words were brush strokes of colour and light. Like the other Australian poets of her time Aboriginal people do not enter the poems. It is probably best described as racism by blindness. Aborigines played a very small part in early Australian literature.
Dorothea (not Dorothy as you will often hear) had an exceptionally privileged life. She was born into a wealthy, well connected bourgeoise family who lived on a large estate on Point Piper, Sydney. The family also had substantial properties in the Hunter Valley and on the Liverpool Plains near Gunnedah.
Catastrophe struck the family when in 1900 her older brother, Keith was killed while fighting in the Boer War. A tragedy that lingered over Dorothea for many a year.
This biography reads like a Jane Austin novel with Mackellar being Elizabeth Bennet, and numerous Mr. Darcies making fleeting appearances. Ms Mackellar never married.
She wrote most of her poetry in her teens and twenties. The wealth of her family gave her the opportunity to travel extensively. She published much poetry and several novels. Her literary output was supported by her close friendship with Ruth Bedford. Although she lived a wealthy secure life and led an active social life she was visited by the ‘black dog’ of depression. In those days it was referred to as ‘nerves’.
As the reader travels through the biography world events (Boer War, WW1, conscription referendum, the Great Depression WW2) appear fleetingly in the background.
During the last quarter of the book Dorothea’s father and then mother die. Sadly, later both her younger brothers pre-decease her, also many of her lifelong friends passed away. Dorothea’s health steadily declined, and she is in and out of hospital. She met Patrick White on several occasions and Di Morrissey tells of her contact with Dorothea when she was a young girl living in an isolated Pittwater community. It was from her time spent in the northern beaches area that Mackellar Girls High School and the federal electorate of Mackellar were named.
Fitzgerald discusses Mackellar’s poetry and mentions that accusation that Dorothea Mackellar was ‘a one hit wonder.’ There is probably some truth in this, but I would argue that ‘My Country’ was such a perfect poem that like, “Catch 22, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in a Rye” were so good the author had difficulty creating an equivalent.
I must plead guilty to the crime of not having read Mackellar’s other works. I intend to make amends. It appears that she did write other quality poems, novels etc. Was it because she was a woman? Was it because she didn’t promote herself enough? Was it because she came from such a privileged background? That she hasn’t gained the literary status of many of her male contemporaries.
Sadly lines from her poem are stolen by the ignorant global warming denialists. The world has changed since she wrote this poem. The world population is now over 8 Billion when she wrote the poem it was 1.6 Billion. In 1900 CO2 in atmosphere was 291 ppm, 2023 424 ppm.
In 1968 she was awarded an Order of the British Empire. I totally agree with her comment, ‘about time.’
In some ways I am surprised I enjoyed this biography as much as I did. Like most Australians I knew little of Dorothea other than that one poem. The biography is not an interpretive literary masterpiece, but it does tell a quiet story of a quiet unassuming Australian woman who should play a larger role in this country’s literature.
Giving stars is not important, but this biography gave me such joy in getting to know this beautiful, delightful, bright woman.
September 22, 2023
This biography is a fascinating insight into the life of poet Dorothea Mackellar, and what inspired her to write one of Australia's most iconic poems, and dozens of others published over her lifetime. The author draws on Dorothea's own diaries, and beautifully captures the wonder the poet found in her natural surroundings. She was born into wealth and brought up on a sprawling harbourside estate in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, but also spent time on her family's properties in country NSW. It was there Dorothea became enchanted with the beauty of the Australian bush, and also witnessed its heartbreak and devastation that is reflected in her most successful poem My Country. After its phenomenal success, Dorothea struggled throughout her life to emerge from its shadow, despite writing many other poems that were published around the world.
Through the book we get a tantalising glimpse into the upper echelons of Sydney's elite during the early 20th century. Dorothea had many suitors, and the author even had to decipher a secret code in her diaries that Dorothea used when writing about her love life.
The book really draws you into Dorothea's life, and you become so invested it's hard to put down as you desperately want to know how it all turns out! I enjoyed this book so much, and can definitely see it as a mini-series or a movie in the future.
Through the book we get a tantalising glimpse into the upper echelons of Sydney's elite during the early 20th century. Dorothea had many suitors, and the author even had to decipher a secret code in her diaries that Dorothea used when writing about her love life.
The book really draws you into Dorothea's life, and you become so invested it's hard to put down as you desperately want to know how it all turns out! I enjoyed this book so much, and can definitely see it as a mini-series or a movie in the future.
November 1, 2023
Most Australians will be familiar with Dorothea Mackellar’s famous poem My Country, but little has been written about the important poet and author. Senior journalist Deborah FitzGerald’s second non-fiction book, Her Sunburnt Country, is a long overdue thorough biography about Dorothea Mackellar and her fascinating life.
Dorothea Mackellar is a writer whom I have been familiar with since my early teens. Her poetry has continued to captivate my imagination and inspire my writing since I went to her namesake high school. I was also fascinated to learn more about this talented writer and one-time Northern Beaches local.
In Her Sunburnt Country FitzGerald explores the woman behind and beyond her famous poem. Much has been written about Australian male writers, but as FitzGerald discovered, there was very little about Dorothea despite her acclaim. The biography developed through her PhD research into Dorothea Mackellar at Sydney University...
https://www.otherterrainjournal.com.a...
Dorothea Mackellar is a writer whom I have been familiar with since my early teens. Her poetry has continued to captivate my imagination and inspire my writing since I went to her namesake high school. I was also fascinated to learn more about this talented writer and one-time Northern Beaches local.
In Her Sunburnt Country FitzGerald explores the woman behind and beyond her famous poem. Much has been written about Australian male writers, but as FitzGerald discovered, there was very little about Dorothea despite her acclaim. The biography developed through her PhD research into Dorothea Mackellar at Sydney University...
https://www.otherterrainjournal.com.a...
May 14, 2024
A well written and entertaining biography of The Australian poet Dorethea Mackellar, who wrote one of Australia's most famous poems. One that is an unofficial National anthem.
One that millions of Australian kids have recited at least a couple of stanzas at school and probably remember them.
In the past couple of years I've been taking more of an interest in poetry and picked up a lovely hardcover of her poems for $3, My Country And Other Poems. I have more incentive to read it now that I know more about Mackellar. I think I knew a few basics of her life before, but I had no idea that her family were quite as wealthy nor that she travelled as widely and knew some quite famous people of the time, particularly Joseph Conrad, who I was just reading about in Gail Jones new novel One Another.
I had no idea that she was still alive when I was a baby, it seemed like she was from the previous century.
Very glad to have listened to the audiobook to keep me on track and also having the book to follow along with and to see the images of Mackellar, her family and friends.
One that millions of Australian kids have recited at least a couple of stanzas at school and probably remember them.
In the past couple of years I've been taking more of an interest in poetry and picked up a lovely hardcover of her poems for $3, My Country And Other Poems. I have more incentive to read it now that I know more about Mackellar. I think I knew a few basics of her life before, but I had no idea that her family were quite as wealthy nor that she travelled as widely and knew some quite famous people of the time, particularly Joseph Conrad, who I was just reading about in Gail Jones new novel One Another.
I had no idea that she was still alive when I was a baby, it seemed like she was from the previous century.
Very glad to have listened to the audiobook to keep me on track and also having the book to follow along with and to see the images of Mackellar, her family and friends.
February 13, 2024
Throughly enjoyed the insight into Dorothea Mackellar’s life, poetry and the countries she visited.
September 23, 2023
Dorothea Mackellar OBE (1885-1968) was the poet who wrote the much-loved 'My Country'.
'My Country' was written in 1908 when Dorothea was 19 and homesick in England, and we learned the first two stanzas at school:
You can see all the verses of 'My Country' at the Dorothea Mackellar website, and listen to her recitation at YouTube.
I would be one of many Australians who know little about Dorothea Mackellar. Judging by its minor presence at Goodreads, most of us have never come across her authorised biography My Heart, My Country: The Story of Dorothea Mackellar (UQP, 1989) by Adrienne Howley. Deborah Fitzgerald's thoroughly researched biography, however, reveals that Mackellar was more than the poet who wrote this iconic poem. She was also an essayist, a public speaker, and the co-founder of Sydney PEN. Her literary output includes four volumes of poetry:
The Closed Door (1911);
The Witch Maid, and Other Verses (1914);
Dreamharbour (1923); and
Fancy Dress (1926).
She also wrote novels, though Fitzgerald tells us that they were only written 'for fun'
Outlaw's Luck (1913),
and in collaboration with Ruth Bedford
The Little Blue Devil (1912) and
Two's Company (1914).
Why another biography, when Howley's authorised biography was already available? It's because Deborah Fitzgerald was given access to Mackellar's closed papers at the Mitchell Library, some of which were written in Dorothea's artful code. These diaries were decoded and published in an abridged and edited form in I Love a Sunburnt Country: the Diaries of Dorothea Mackellar (1990, edited by Jyoti Brunson). As Fitzgerald explains:
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/09/23/h...
'My Country' was written in 1908 when Dorothea was 19 and homesick in England, and we learned the first two stanzas at school:
The love of field and coppice, of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance, brown streams and soft, dim skies-
I know but cannot share it, my love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror- the wide brown land for me!
You can see all the verses of 'My Country' at the Dorothea Mackellar website, and listen to her recitation at YouTube.
I would be one of many Australians who know little about Dorothea Mackellar. Judging by its minor presence at Goodreads, most of us have never come across her authorised biography My Heart, My Country: The Story of Dorothea Mackellar (UQP, 1989) by Adrienne Howley. Deborah Fitzgerald's thoroughly researched biography, however, reveals that Mackellar was more than the poet who wrote this iconic poem. She was also an essayist, a public speaker, and the co-founder of Sydney PEN. Her literary output includes four volumes of poetry:
The Closed Door (1911);
The Witch Maid, and Other Verses (1914);
Dreamharbour (1923); and
Fancy Dress (1926).
She also wrote novels, though Fitzgerald tells us that they were only written 'for fun'
Outlaw's Luck (1913),
and in collaboration with Ruth Bedford
The Little Blue Devil (1912) and
Two's Company (1914).
Why another biography, when Howley's authorised biography was already available? It's because Deborah Fitzgerald was given access to Mackellar's closed papers at the Mitchell Library, some of which were written in Dorothea's artful code. These diaries were decoded and published in an abridged and edited form in I Love a Sunburnt Country: the Diaries of Dorothea Mackellar (1990, edited by Jyoti Brunson). As Fitzgerald explains:
Dorothea used a series of symbols to represent letters in the hope of preventing prying eyes from discovering her secrets, particularly in relation to her romantic life. Applying the code also allowed me to access diary entries which had never been published. (p.viii)
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/09/23/h...
November 3, 2023
Not well written. Did not finish.
April 1, 2024
DNFed. This book is advertised as a biography but it’s been written much more like a fiction story to the point where it becomes impossible to know what is fact and what is just the author’s imagination. Every sentence is imbued with the author’s personal perspective in an attempt at romantic prose. Nowhere can I find facts and facts alone.
June 27, 2024
‘I love a sunburnt country.’
Lisa’s review https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/09/23/h... of this book led me (as her reviews so often do) to read this book. I was curious. I cannot remember when I first encountered the poem ‘My Country’, and I really only know the second verse. Memorising poems is not one of my skills, so I went searching for the entire poem, and here it is:
The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!
A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold –
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
It is a wonderful anthem to Australia.
Dorothea Mackellar was born on 1 July 1885 in Sydney. She was a third generation Australian. Dorothea was the third of four children born to Dr Charles Mackellar and his wife Marion. Dorothea had two older brothers, Keith and Eric, and a younger brother, Malcolm.
In writing this biography, Ms Fitzgerald was able to draw on the Mackellar Papers held at the Mitchell Library which included Ms McKellar’s diaries from 1907. Ms Mackellar lived a privileged life: born into wealth she did not have to seek paid work; unmarried and childless she had more time to pursue her own interests. She was, I read, a keen traveller. In addition to spending long periods in Europe, she also travelled to the Caribbean, Egypt and Japan. She was also, clearly, a keen observer. And, while ‘My Country’ may be the only poem many of us are familiar with, it is not her only work.
Ms Fitzgerald does a wonderful job of taking the reader into Ms Mackellar’s life, of making us aware of her ties to family and her appreciation of the Australian landscape. Privileged her life may have been but it was not always happy.
I finished this book, pleased to have learned something about the life and times of Dorothea Mackellar. Ms Mackellar loved that Australia embraced My Country as an unofficial anthem, making her a household name. But this success, as Ms Fitzgerald writes was a constraint. ‘She could not move on from it no matter how hard she tried.’
Which makes me want to locate and read more of her work.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Lisa’s review https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/09/23/h... of this book led me (as her reviews so often do) to read this book. I was curious. I cannot remember when I first encountered the poem ‘My Country’, and I really only know the second verse. Memorising poems is not one of my skills, so I went searching for the entire poem, and here it is:
The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!
A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold –
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
It is a wonderful anthem to Australia.
Dorothea Mackellar was born on 1 July 1885 in Sydney. She was a third generation Australian. Dorothea was the third of four children born to Dr Charles Mackellar and his wife Marion. Dorothea had two older brothers, Keith and Eric, and a younger brother, Malcolm.
In writing this biography, Ms Fitzgerald was able to draw on the Mackellar Papers held at the Mitchell Library which included Ms McKellar’s diaries from 1907. Ms Mackellar lived a privileged life: born into wealth she did not have to seek paid work; unmarried and childless she had more time to pursue her own interests. She was, I read, a keen traveller. In addition to spending long periods in Europe, she also travelled to the Caribbean, Egypt and Japan. She was also, clearly, a keen observer. And, while ‘My Country’ may be the only poem many of us are familiar with, it is not her only work.
Ms Fitzgerald does a wonderful job of taking the reader into Ms Mackellar’s life, of making us aware of her ties to family and her appreciation of the Australian landscape. Privileged her life may have been but it was not always happy.
I finished this book, pleased to have learned something about the life and times of Dorothea Mackellar. Ms Mackellar loved that Australia embraced My Country as an unofficial anthem, making her a household name. But this success, as Ms Fitzgerald writes was a constraint. ‘She could not move on from it no matter how hard she tried.’
Which makes me want to locate and read more of her work.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
March 28, 2024
An English friend gave me this book to 'mind' for him as he couldn't fit it into his luggage before a long-haul flight. Of course I couldn't resist the temptation of reading it - carefully, to keep his new book in pristine condition.
Dorothea Mackellar's famous poem, which I learned by heart during my primary school days, still easily brings a tear to my eye when I hear it recited out loud, ongoing homage which that poem deserves. It perfectly captures, compares and contrasts the amazing Australian landscape with the Englishness of much of my own family's cultural heritage. There were so many other 'hooks' for me: my grandmother was also a Dorothea with two older brothers, I originate in Sydney's Northern Beaches and my grandaughter briefly attended Mackellar Girls' High School.
The book engaged my interest throughout because I wanted to understand Dorothea's life. Although I often found its descriptive sections too lengthy and a tedious travelogue, as if a direct take from Dorothea's diaries, the historical context was fascinating. Like my grandmother Dorothea, the poet also lived through the Edwardian era, the Great War, the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, the Second World War, and both women lost family members to death and illness in wars, and struggled as a 'genteel' woman in Australia's rigidly male-dominated society.
Also fascinating was the depiction of relationships in this book - Dorothea's with her parents, her brothers, her friends and the men in her life. I didn't agree with the author's conclusions that Dorothea's uncertainty about her sexuality was the reason she never married. To me, the description of Dorothea's sense of connection with the older married man Robin Dods, described in Chapter 8, was the key. No-one else ever aroused those bodily responses. Properly and dutifully, she chose society's moral strictures over her own instincts, closed the door to her feelings and threw away the key, and seemingly lived with a sense of loss afterwards, including episodes of depression. No-one else ever quite measured up and she was honest enough to not compromise her own standards and risk her independence.
The book's references to the literary figures of this time I suppose were necessary, for context, but I've always found that world rather pretentious, as it seemed Dorothea herself did. She revelled in being genuine and true to herself. By the time I reached the last page I felt sad for her, but glad that she left behind a defining piece of Australian cultural heritage.
Dorothea Mackellar's famous poem, which I learned by heart during my primary school days, still easily brings a tear to my eye when I hear it recited out loud, ongoing homage which that poem deserves. It perfectly captures, compares and contrasts the amazing Australian landscape with the Englishness of much of my own family's cultural heritage. There were so many other 'hooks' for me: my grandmother was also a Dorothea with two older brothers, I originate in Sydney's Northern Beaches and my grandaughter briefly attended Mackellar Girls' High School.
The book engaged my interest throughout because I wanted to understand Dorothea's life. Although I often found its descriptive sections too lengthy and a tedious travelogue, as if a direct take from Dorothea's diaries, the historical context was fascinating. Like my grandmother Dorothea, the poet also lived through the Edwardian era, the Great War, the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, the Second World War, and both women lost family members to death and illness in wars, and struggled as a 'genteel' woman in Australia's rigidly male-dominated society.
Also fascinating was the depiction of relationships in this book - Dorothea's with her parents, her brothers, her friends and the men in her life. I didn't agree with the author's conclusions that Dorothea's uncertainty about her sexuality was the reason she never married. To me, the description of Dorothea's sense of connection with the older married man Robin Dods, described in Chapter 8, was the key. No-one else ever aroused those bodily responses. Properly and dutifully, she chose society's moral strictures over her own instincts, closed the door to her feelings and threw away the key, and seemingly lived with a sense of loss afterwards, including episodes of depression. No-one else ever quite measured up and she was honest enough to not compromise her own standards and risk her independence.
The book's references to the literary figures of this time I suppose were necessary, for context, but I've always found that world rather pretentious, as it seemed Dorothea herself did. She revelled in being genuine and true to herself. By the time I reached the last page I felt sad for her, but glad that she left behind a defining piece of Australian cultural heritage.
March 20, 2024
Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar (1 July 1885-14 Jan 1968),was born at Dunara, Point Piper, Sydney, third child and only daughter of native-born parents (Sir) Charles Kinnaird Mackellar(d.1926), physician, and Marion(d. 1933).She was educated at home and travelled extensively with her parents, becoming fluent in French, Spanish, German, and Italian, and also attended some lectures at the University of Sydney.Her youth was protected and highly civilised. She moved easily between the society of Sydney's intellectual and administrative elite, life on her family's country properties,and among their friends in London.Dorothea began writing while quite young and surprised her family when magazines not only published but paid for her verses and prose pieces.Although she was raised in a professional urban family, Mackellar's poetry is usually regarded as quintessential bush poetry, inspired by her experience on her brothers' farms near Gunnedah. Her best-known poem is "My Country",written while homesick in England,and first published in the London Spectator in 1908 under the title "Core of My Heart": the 2nd stanza of this poem is among the best known in Australia. Four volumes of her collected verse were published: The Closed Door (published in 1911, contained the first appearance of "My Country"); The Witch Maid,and Other Verses (1914); Dreamharbour (1923); and Fancy Dress (1926).During WWI and as a result of its frequent inclusion in anthologies, 'My Country' became one of the best-known Australian poems, appealing to the sense of patriotism fostered by the war and post-war nationalism.Mackellar also wrote novels, one herself Outlaw's Luck (1913), and at least two in collaboration with great friend Ruth Bedford, The Little Blue Devil (1912) and Two's Company (1914).
Dorothea Mackellar was active in the Sydney literary scene of the 1930s, being involved with the Sydney Publishers, Editors and Novelists Club, the Bush Book Club of New South Wales and the Sydney PEN Centre.She is buried in Waverley Cemetery in Sydney's eastern suburbs. She outlived her family and died a relatively wealthy woman, leaving an estate valued for probate at $1,580,000.
Dorothea Mackellar was active in the Sydney literary scene of the 1930s, being involved with the Sydney Publishers, Editors and Novelists Club, the Bush Book Club of New South Wales and the Sydney PEN Centre.She is buried in Waverley Cemetery in Sydney's eastern suburbs. She outlived her family and died a relatively wealthy woman, leaving an estate valued for probate at $1,580,000.
August 4, 2025
This is Australia through the eyes of Dorothea Mackellar a stellar author of outside.
While I have enjoyed Dorothea’s work, I found the author has tried to make her very comfortably WELL OFF life into a story of suffering, hardship,
tradegy, doom and gloom instead of a lifestyle of rest and relaxation with plenty of freedom to what any wealthy female might have to endure by birth
that did not include overworking underpaid to survive.
Thank you for your collected words Deborah FitzGerald, and Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood, much appreciated Ladies :-)
While I have enjoyed Dorothea’s work, I found the author has tried to make her very comfortably WELL OFF life into a story of suffering, hardship,
tradegy, doom and gloom instead of a lifestyle of rest and relaxation with plenty of freedom to what any wealthy female might have to endure by birth
that did not include overworking underpaid to survive.
Thank you for your collected words Deborah FitzGerald, and Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood, much appreciated Ladies :-)
November 20, 2023
A thoughly researched book written from diaries by Dorothea Mackellar. This book takes the reader into the private life & loves of the Australian poet who wrote that famous poem which many a child learnt at school.
December 10, 2023
Great biography of Dorothea Mackellar - so much a story of her times.
December 28, 2024
This felt like a work of fiction, in which the author had assumed or applied her own perception of events. If read as fiction it was ok but I could not perceive it to be factual.
February 13, 2025
More accurately titled:
Her Sunburnt Country: the vaguely interesting but mostly un reportable literary life of Dorothea Mackellar
Her Sunburnt Country: the vaguely interesting but mostly un reportable literary life of Dorothea Mackellar
October 11, 2023
I was expecting so much more from this book and found the writing very disappointing. I struggled to give it 3 stars.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews