Dorothea Mackellar
Dorothea Mackellar OBE | |
---|---|
Born | Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar 1 July 1885 Dunara, Point Piper, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
Died | 14 January 1968 Paddington, Sydney, New South Wales | (aged 82)
Resting place | Waverley Cemetery |
Occupation | Poet |
Nationality | Australian |
Genres | Poetry |
Notable works | "My Country" |
Relatives | Sir Charles Mackellar (father) |
Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar
Life
The third child and only daughter of physician and parliamentarian Sir
She built up a personal library of 300 books, mostly on poetry and literature. Many were signed by their authors. She outlived her siblings and died a relatively wealthy woman, leaving an estate valued for probate at $1,580,000.[3]
Literary works
Although she was raised in a professional urban family, Mackellar's poetry is usually regarded as quintessential
Honours
In the New Year's Day Honours of 1968, Mackellar was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to Australian literature.[5] She died two weeks later in Paddington, New South Wales after a fall. She is buried with her father and family in Waverley Cemetery overlooking the open ocean. Her poem "Colour", her own favourite, was read at the service.[6]
Legacy
A federal electorate covering half of Sydney's Northern Beaches is named in her honour as well as Mackellar Crescent in the Canberra suburb of Cook.[7]
On Australia Day, 26 January 1983, a memorial to Mackellar was unveiled and dedicated in ANZAC Park, Gunnedah.[8] The centrepiece of the memorial, a statue of Mackellar on horseback by Dennis Adams, was a temporary fibreglass version. The finished bronze version was installed in September 1983.[9] In conjunction with the January unveiling, there was an exhibition of a series of 34 water colour paintings by Jean Isherwood illustrating "My Country". The watercolours were eventually put on permanent display in the Gunnedah Bicentennial Regional Gallery. Isherwood set about painting a series of oils based on the watercolours which were exhibited at the Artarmon Galleries in Sydney in 1986.[citation needed]
In 1984, Gunnedah resident Mikie Maas created the "Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards", which has grown into a nationwide poetry competition for Australian school students.[10]
Bibliography
Novels
- The Little Blue Devil (1912) with Ruth M. Bedford
- Outlaw's Luck (1913)
- Two's Company (1914) with Ruth M. Bedford
Poetry collections
- The Closed Door and Other Verses (1911)
- The Witch-Maid and Other Verses (1914)
- Dreamhabour and Other Verses (1923)
- My Country and Other Poems (1945)
- The Poems of Dorothea Mackellar (1971)
- A Poet's Journey (2005)
Autobiography
- I Love a Sunburnt Country : The Diaries of Dorothea MacKellar edited by Jyoti Brunsdon (1990)
References
- ^ ISSN 1833-7538.
- ^ MacKellar, Isobel Marion Dorothea (Dorothea) (1885–1968), The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia
- ISBN 9780646533407.
- ^ Spender, Dale (1988) Writing a New World: Two Centuries of Australian Women Writers, London: Pandora p. 219
- ^ "Mackellar, Isobel Marion Dorothea". It's an Honour. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
- ^ "Waverley Cemetery – A Walk Through History No. 1" Archived 8 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Australian Capital Territory National Memorials Ordinance 1928–1959". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. 2 October 1969. p. 5791. Retrieved 16 December 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ Monument Australia. Retrieved 22 February 2014
- ^ Dorothea Mackellar poetry awards Archived 27 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 22 February 2014.
- ^ "The Maas Walk". www.dorothea.com.au. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
Further reading
- Howley, Adrienne (1989). My Heart, My Country: The Story of Dorothea Mackellar. St. Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 9780702221880.
- Fitzgerald, Deborah (2023). Her Sunburnt Country: The Extraordinary Literary Life of Dorothea Mackellar. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781760855413.
External links
- Dorothea Mackellar biography page at Gunnedah Tourism
- Dorothea Mackellar portrait by Norman Grosskopf
- MacKellar, Isobel Marion Dorothea (Dorothea) (1885 - 1968) at The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia
- Works by or about Dorothea Mackellar at Internet Archive
- Works by Dorothea Mackellar at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- "My Country", text published in The Chronicle (Adelaide, South Australia) 28 July 1932 p. 59
- "My Country", complete text
- Listen to "My Country" read by Dorothea Mackellar and read more about it on australianscreen online