Dorothea Mackellar
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Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar OBE, (July 1, 1885-January 14, 1968), was an Australian poet and fiction writer.
The only daughter of noted physician and parliamentarian Sir Charles Kinnaird Mackellar, she was born in Sydney in 1885. Although raised in a professional urban family, Dorothea Mackellar's poetry is usually regarded as quintessential bush poetry, inspired as it is by her experience on her brothers' farms near Gunnedah, North-West New South Wales.
Her best-known poem is My Country, written at age 19 while homesick in England, and first published in the London Spectator in 1908 under the title Core of My Heart. The second stanza of this poem is amongst the most well-known in Australia. Four volumes of her collected verse were published: The Closed Door (published in 1911, contained the first appearance of My Country under its present name); The Witchmaid (1914); Dreamharbour (1923); and Fancy Dress (1926).
In addition to writing poems, Mackellar also wrote novels, at least two in collaboration with Ruth Bedford. These are The Little Blue Devil (1912) and Two's Company (1914). According to Dale Spender, little has been written or is yet known about the circumstances behind this collaboration.[1] Mackellar also wrote a novel in her own right, Outlaw's Luck (1913).
In 1984, Gunnedah resident Mikie Maas created the "Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards", which has grown into a nationwide poetry competition for Australian school students.
Dorothea Mackellar was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to Australian literature in 1968, two weeks before her death. She is buried with her father and family in Waverley Cemetery overlooking the open ocean.[2] A memorial to Mackellar stands in ANZAC Park in Gunnedah. A federal electorate covering half of Sydney's Northern Beaches and a street in the Canberra suburb of Cook are named in her honour.
[edit] External links
- Dorothea Mackellar biography page at Gunnedah Tourism
- Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards
- Australia, My Country Audio of a song based on the poem My Country
- My Country Complete text of My Country
- Dorothea Mackellar portrait Portrait of Mackellar, aged 81, by Norman Grosskopf
- Original manuscript of My Country (Core of My Heart) - State Library of NSW
[edit] Notes
- ^ Spender (1988) p. 219
- ^ Waverley Cemetery - A Walk Through History No. 1
[edit] References
- Spender, Dale (1988) Writing a New World: Two Centuries of Australian Women Writers, London: Pandora
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mackellar, Dorothea |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 1, 1885 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sydney |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 14, 1968 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Sydney |
