Show notes

Bibliographer Carol Hetherington tells us her own tale of sleuthing through the To Be Continued database and Trove as she attempted to track down a mysterious author who wrote story after story…after story.

How did she track down the enigmatically named Roland Quiz? And what do the stories behind the many pseudonyms found in Trove tell us about the people who wrote Australia’s fiction in the newspapers of the time?

Mentioned in the episode

A Bush Race Meeting

A Ghostly Chapter

A Deaf Cook

His Terrifying Experience

The Last Night of the Camp

Find all of Roland Quiz’s stories here

Stories by Ivan Dexter

Author Vance Palmer

The stories in this episode were read by Perform Australia

Find the transcript of this episode here

Main story

The Story of the Three Photos

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show notes

The scientific bushranger? Have you ever heard of such a thing?

In this episode we look at the unexpected Bushranger stories Associate Professor Maggie Nolan from the University of Queensland and Professor Ronan McDonald from Melbourne University found in the To Be Continued database.

Bushrangers are an iconic part of Australian post colonial history but what do we really know about them other than the iconic image of Ned Kelly?

Mentioned in episode

Search Trove for ‘Bushranger’

The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

Bushranger Martin Cash

Bushranger Alexander Pierce

Female Bushranger Jesse Hickman

Chinese Australian Bushranger Sam Poo

Main stories

How Ubique Robbed TheMorganville Company’s Safe

The Helpful Bushranger

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode we dive into the extraordinary world of fiction for children with Associate Professor Kristine Moruzi from Deakin University.

When did we first start publishing material for children? And what do the wild adventures involving shipwrecks, kidnapping and toast water tell us about what it meant to be a child in this time?

Mentioned in the episode

Mary Grant Bruce

Princess Spinaway’s Department

Someone else thought the concept of toast water was interesting and attempted to recreate the recipe in this YouTube video

You can find a full transcript of the episode here.

Main stories

The Marvellous Island

Theft of a day

The Convalescence of Taffie Farndon

A Little Bushmaid

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How much is our way of thinking shaped by technology? 

Associate Professor Roger Osborne from James Cook University joins us to delve into a story about high flying spying antics that raises a lot of questions about how new technological possibilities become integrated into stories.

As history unfolds how do we imagine new futures? And when some of these come to pass, how are stories used to question and explore the ways our society changes?

Mentioned in the episode

The Flying Girl 

Eleanor Dark

Featured stories

The Wickham Aeroplane by Francis Marlowe.

Find a full transcript of this episode here

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In this episode we look at the devastation that bushfires have wrought upon the Australian landscape, and their effect on early colonial literature with PhD candidate, Finnuala Morgan.

Our featured story - Black Thursday - profiles the first recorded 'major' bushfire in Victoria in 1851.

Mentioned in the episode

Charles Harpur’s 1851 poem called The Bush Fire

A collection of Australian bushfire stories published by Orbiter - 

Black Thursday and Other Lost Australian Bushfire Stories

Mythologised, memorialised then forgotten: a history of Australia’s bushfire reporting by Finn Morgan

Black Thursday bushfires

Main Stories

Black Thursday

Ria: A West Australian Story

To Be Continued in Trove

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This appendix episode features two bushfire stories from Australia's early colonial life.

One of the earliest bushfire narratives, William Howitt’s short story Black Thursday, is an adaptation of his own reporting on the fire disaster of the same name. Black Thursday (February 7, 1851) was perhaps the first great fire disaster in settler Australian history. Although no official records exist, it is estimated that almost a quarter of the Victorian colony was burned. Howitt’s literary account is partly a revision of his own reporting that drew together different newspaper accounts to present a sensational report of unprecedented destruction. Howitt’s narrative is ultimately a tale of settler endurance that features protagonist Robert Patterson successfully navigating the difficulties of bush life. Nonetheless, he draws heavily on these journalistic accounts for both the narrative setting and the description of the fire itself.

Ria: A West Australian Story is notable as the only representation of a woman fighting a bushfire at the fire-front, rather than within the boundaried perimeter of the property or directly outside the homestead. This story presents the opportunity for discussion of gender norms and the gendered politics of fire-fighting

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