The Letters of Rachel Henning

A fantastic work, and perhaps the earliest Australian piece of writing that I find truly engaging. Henning was a British woman who lived in the Australian outback, and then the city, during the mid-19th century: a time when Australia was still defining itself as separate from the motherland, and when of course the role of women was still incredibly confining. Her writing is fascinating both for what she observes deliberately, and for the everyday touches that would have meant little to her, but give us an insight into the world at the time. Of course, being a woman also plays an important role in Henning's legacy: despite their underclass status, Australian women provide much of the fascinating writing between the 1850s and WWII, in show more part because of that status. They are able to observe, they write from a place of difference, and the story of how women survived is a powerful and poignant one.

These letters were published almost a century after being written, and were never intended for such publication, so they're inherently "natural" and not polished. This isn't a slight against them, but be aware. Still, in the fairly small ranks of important works of Aussie writing pre-Federation, this very much makes the cut. show less

Letters by an English woman who came to Australia and learned to love the country