Herb Wharton

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Herb Wharton (born 1936) is an Indigenous Australian former stockman and now internationally recognised poet and novelist.

A Murri man, his maternal grandmother was Kooma, and both grandfathers Irish.^[1] He was born in Yumba, an Aboriginal camp in the south-western Queensland town of Cunnamulla.

He has worked as a stockman, a drover and a labourer, but did not begin his writing career until he was around 50, in the 1980s, when he sat down under a tree and began to write. Through his writing, he tried to answer questions about his people's past, and eventually considered publishing his poetry.

So, buying an electric typewriter with a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts, he wrote his first book of poems, Kings with Empty Pockets. In 1990 Wharton entered some of his poems in the Unaipon Award for unpublished Indigenous writers. His work being highly commended, University of Queensland Press asked him to write a novel.

The resulting novel, Unbranded, published in 1992, relates his experiences on the stock routes of the Australian outback. It was followed in 1994 by Cattle Camp, Where ya' been, mate?, (1996) and the young adult novel Yumba Days, in 1999. Herb recently finished a first draft of a novel called The Munta and the Mob.

In 1998 Wharton participated in an international book promotion tour of France and the UK, and won a residency at the Australia Council studio at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. When not travelling internationally to attend literary festivals he lives in Brisbane, and now writes full-time. He is also been made a member of the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame in Longreach.

A second volume of poetry, Imba (Listen): Tell You A Story. In each of his books of poetry, a glossary is included to assist readers understand all the Murri language words (Murrayisms), he uses throughout his writing.

[edit] Works

Novels

• Unbranded (UQP, 1992) ISBN 0702224448
• Yumba Days [young adult novel] (UQP, 1999) ISBN 9780702231131

Short stories

• Cattle Camp: Murri Drovers and their Stories (UQP, 1994)
• Where Ya Been Mate? (1996)

Poetry

• Kings With Empty Pockets (2003) ISBN 0-0581883-4-3 Review
• Imba (Listen): Tell You a Story (2003) ISBN 0958188335

[edit] References

Persondata
NAME	Wharton, Herb
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Contemporary Indigenous Australian poet and novelist
DATE OF BIRTH	1936
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cunnamulla, Queensland, Australia
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH