The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 The Invasion of Sydney Rata , 1982 extract novel science fiction (The Coloured Conquest)
— Appears in: Australian Science Fiction 1982; (p. 92-102)
1 2 y separately published work icon The Coloured Conquest Rata , Sydney : N.S.W. Bookstall Company , 1904 Z911837 1904 single work novel science fiction

'Draws upon the growing interest in things Japanese following the signing of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty in 1902. Japan, as Britain's new ally in the Pacific, soon dispatched a Training Squadron to Australia. From its first appearance in early May 1903 to its departure five weeks later in mid June, the Japanese Squadron attracted immense interest in the press and among the public. The reader encounters the narrator of The Coloured Conquest, Frank Danton and his fiancée, the lovely Mabel Graham, as they visit the Training Squadron during its visit to Sydney. Frank and Mabel later meet Japanese officers at one of Sydney's better north shore addresses. There is considerable enthusiasm for the visitors, so much so that the attention which young women shower upon the visitors troubles Frank [...] the Japanese soon overwhelm what there is of the British Fleet and invade Sydney. Once victorious, they establish "Fair Lily Colonies" where the most comely European women, including Mabel, are forced to cohabit with the Japanese'.

Source: 'Shooting Mabel : Warrior Masculinity and Asian Invasion'.

X