What do you think?
Rate this book
DADDA JUMPED OVER TWO ELEPHANTS
- GenresShort Stories
Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
3 people want to read
About the author
D'Arcy Niland
20 books15 followersD’Arcy Francis Niland was an Australian author who wrote prolifically during his lifetime. He is well-known for his classic novel The Shiralee, a best-selling book which has never been out of print since its first publication in 1955. His major interest was in the craft of short story writing. He produced over five hundred short stories published in Australia and abroad.
D’Arcy Niland was born in Glen Innes, NSW on 20 October 1917. He was educated at St Joseph’s School in Glen Innes and it was here, he was encouraged to write by the nuns who saw a literary potential in their young pupil.
Having to leave school by the age of fourteen to help support his large family, he took on varied employment in shearing sheds, potato fields, opal mines, circus tents and boxing shows. He educated himself by reading the dictionary and practised his writing craft when he could.
The Niland family left Glen Innes around 1933, to live in Sydney. D’Arcy Niland worked as a copyboy at the Sun newspaper. He supplemented his small income by working at the railway sheds at Redfern, Sydney.
In 1942 he married Ruth Park, a New Zealander, with whom he had been corresponding for several years about their like-minded goals as writers. Once married, the couple decided to make a concerted effort to pursue their dream to live entirely by writing. They worked in partnership and alone, producing an enormous output of stories, songs, jingles, plays, factual articles, scripts, poems and novels.
In Balgowlah, NSW, they raised their family of five children, whilst juggling writing commitments.
Achieving wider recognition through winning various literary prizes, D’Arcy Niland was awarded £600 by the Commonwealth Literary Fund in 1952 to write a novel.
The result was The Shiralee, published in 1955. It was an international success. There have been over sixty-five editions and many translations. It was made into a film of the same name in 1957, starring Peter Finch, and a cast of well-known Australian actors. The Shiralee was also made into a popular television mini-series in 1987, with Bryan Brown as Macauley.
D’Arcy Niland continued writing to the end of his life, completing his last novel Dead Men Running two days before his death on 29 March 1967.
D’Arcy Niland was born in Glen Innes, NSW on 20 October 1917. He was educated at St Joseph’s School in Glen Innes and it was here, he was encouraged to write by the nuns who saw a literary potential in their young pupil.
Having to leave school by the age of fourteen to help support his large family, he took on varied employment in shearing sheds, potato fields, opal mines, circus tents and boxing shows. He educated himself by reading the dictionary and practised his writing craft when he could.
The Niland family left Glen Innes around 1933, to live in Sydney. D’Arcy Niland worked as a copyboy at the Sun newspaper. He supplemented his small income by working at the railway sheds at Redfern, Sydney.
In 1942 he married Ruth Park, a New Zealander, with whom he had been corresponding for several years about their like-minded goals as writers. Once married, the couple decided to make a concerted effort to pursue their dream to live entirely by writing. They worked in partnership and alone, producing an enormous output of stories, songs, jingles, plays, factual articles, scripts, poems and novels.
In Balgowlah, NSW, they raised their family of five children, whilst juggling writing commitments.
Achieving wider recognition through winning various literary prizes, D’Arcy Niland was awarded £600 by the Commonwealth Literary Fund in 1952 to write a novel.
The result was The Shiralee, published in 1955. It was an international success. There have been over sixty-five editions and many translations. It was made into a film of the same name in 1957, starring Peter Finch, and a cast of well-known Australian actors. The Shiralee was also made into a popular television mini-series in 1987, with Bryan Brown as Macauley.
D’Arcy Niland continued writing to the end of his life, completing his last novel Dead Men Running two days before his death on 29 March 1967.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 23, 2018
An excellent and vastly underrated collection of short stories. Niland has the feel of an Australian Steinbeck but with a voice that somehow captures the idiosyncrasies of a different continent.
February 12, 2025
I was thrilled when I found 'Dadda jumped over Two Elephants' at the Lifeline book fair this year.
D'Arcy Niland was a terrific Australian writer, who married New Zealand writer Ruth Parkes, and they documented working class Sydney and then London, in the 1940s to 60s. Niland won a writing competition for his book, 'The Shiralee', and the prize money funded them buying their own home, and their move to England.
As an older Circus person, the top shelf of one of my bookcases is devoted to Circus stories. This book fits there perfectly, as the first short story tells the story of Dadda, a retired acrobat who hits the bottle and the road after his wife dies. His devoted son leaves the city to find his dad, following the country roads from town to town till he finds him.
I'd like to say that things have improved for Circus people in our time, with many retiring to summer camps in the outskirts of the cities, like Chandler's Flat near Brisbane. But Circus life, whether in the traditional tent circuses, or the modern theatre circuses, remains a hard slog, despite improvements like the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbs. City and town councils ban animal entertainers, so shows with horses find less pitches, and the number of circus companies is dwindling.
At least social welfare like the dole and the pension have improved the lives of contemporary acrobats, from the abject poverty which Dadda and his nameless son find themselves in.
The last three Australian circus elephants now reside at Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast, and visitors can feed them veggies. Niland died at 60, but Ruth Parkes continued to write and travel, visiting the US, and a Buddhist monastery in Japan, before returning home. Niland and Parkes wrote about the real, working class, urban Australia, and their work lives on, and needs to be reprinted.
D'Arcy Niland was a terrific Australian writer, who married New Zealand writer Ruth Parkes, and they documented working class Sydney and then London, in the 1940s to 60s. Niland won a writing competition for his book, 'The Shiralee', and the prize money funded them buying their own home, and their move to England.
As an older Circus person, the top shelf of one of my bookcases is devoted to Circus stories. This book fits there perfectly, as the first short story tells the story of Dadda, a retired acrobat who hits the bottle and the road after his wife dies. His devoted son leaves the city to find his dad, following the country roads from town to town till he finds him.
I'd like to say that things have improved for Circus people in our time, with many retiring to summer camps in the outskirts of the cities, like Chandler's Flat near Brisbane. But Circus life, whether in the traditional tent circuses, or the modern theatre circuses, remains a hard slog, despite improvements like the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbs. City and town councils ban animal entertainers, so shows with horses find less pitches, and the number of circus companies is dwindling.
At least social welfare like the dole and the pension have improved the lives of contemporary acrobats, from the abject poverty which Dadda and his nameless son find themselves in.
The last three Australian circus elephants now reside at Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast, and visitors can feed them veggies. Niland died at 60, but Ruth Parkes continued to write and travel, visiting the US, and a Buddhist monastery in Japan, before returning home. Niland and Parkes wrote about the real, working class, urban Australia, and their work lives on, and needs to be reprinted.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews