image of person or book cover 1555780080033466841.png
Image sourced from the University of Sydney, Fisher Library
y separately published work icon An Australian Bush Track single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1896... 1896 An Australian Bush Track
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.

Latest Issues

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

A lost-race romance story. Typically, in this popular late-nineteenth century genre, male English adventurers travel beyond the edges of the known world and have their masculine and racial identities tested, but ultimately affirmed, in encounters with a lost race, remnants of an ancient civilisation often led by a female chief.

Source: Carter, David. How people have imagined Queensland. Queensland Historical Atlas, 2010.

Exhibitions

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Hodder and Stoughton ,
      1913 .
      Alternative title: The Bush Track : A Story of the Australian Bush
      Extent: vi, 314p.p.
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Lost Worlds Australia : Early Australian Science Fiction Lost Worlds Australia : 13 Classic Tales; Lost Worlds Australia : 16 Classic Tales London : Roh Press , 2018 15827253 2018 anthology short story science fiction

    'There has been a lot of speculative fiction written about Australia, even before colonization. The first ‘home-grown’ lost civilization story set in Australia was Oo-A-Deen, or, The Mysteries of the Interior Unveiled, published by an unknown author in the Corio Chronicle and Western Districts Advertiser, in 1847. It tells the story of an explorer who discovers a lost utopian society and falls in love with the daughter of the High Priest. With the rise in popularity of the genre thanks to such novels as Haggard’s She and King Solomon’s Mines many imitators soon followed. Thanks to the imagination of many a writer, the unexplored Australian Outback was soon populated by Atlantaeans, Lemurians, Toltecs, Classical Greeks, Ant Men, Bat People, and even the descendants of Alexander the Great’s mighty army.

    'This Early Australian Science Fiction anthology is a collection of 13 tales considered to be among the most influential Australian works in the lost world genre. They are the works most referred to by researchers and academics when they evaluate Australian colonial science fiction. Some have been made available for Kindle for the very first time and are exclusive to ROH Press.'

    Source: Publisher's blurb (2018 ed.)

    London : Roh Press , 2018
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Lost Worlds Australia : Early Australian Science Fiction Lost Worlds Australia : 13 Classic Tales; Lost Worlds Australia : 16 Classic Tales London : Roh Press , 2018 15827253 2018 anthology short story science fiction

    'There has been a lot of speculative fiction written about Australia, even before colonization. The first ‘home-grown’ lost civilization story set in Australia was Oo-A-Deen, or, The Mysteries of the Interior Unveiled, published by an unknown author in the Corio Chronicle and Western Districts Advertiser, in 1847. It tells the story of an explorer who discovers a lost utopian society and falls in love with the daughter of the High Priest. With the rise in popularity of the genre thanks to such novels as Haggard’s She and King Solomon’s Mines many imitators soon followed. Thanks to the imagination of many a writer, the unexplored Australian Outback was soon populated by Atlantaeans, Lemurians, Toltecs, Classical Greeks, Ant Men, Bat People, and even the descendants of Alexander the Great’s mighty army.

    'This Early Australian Science Fiction anthology is a collection of 13 tales considered to be among the most influential Australian works in the lost world genre. They are the works most referred to by researchers and academics when they evaluate Australian colonial science fiction. Some have been made available for Kindle for the very first time and are exclusive to ROH Press.'

    Source: Publisher's blurb (2018 ed.)

    London : Roh Press , 2019

Works about this Work

Colonial Adventure Novels Ken Gelder , Rachael Weaver , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel 2023;
Portals to a New World : H.P. Lovecraft Ventures to the Great Sandy Desert Peter Pierce , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Telling Stories : Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012 2013; (p. 16-22)
Britishness and Australian Popular Fiction : From the Mid-Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries Hsu-Ming Teo , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 46-66)
'The analysis offered here is [...], a panoptic perspective of the tangled skeins of literary imagination and imitation, gender and genre requirements, editorial control, market considerations and the sheer economics of the international book trade that knotted Australian popular literature into the cultural and economic fabric of the British empire.' (47)
Lemuria and Australian Dreams of an Inland Sea Michael Cathcart , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Lemuria , Winter vol. 1 no. 1 2006; (p. 32-47)
Cathcart reads a range of 'Lemurian novels,' examining their 'uncomplicated optimism about the future of White Australia, their trust that the key to that future lay beneath the earth, in the Great Australian Basin, and their attempts to grapple with the deadly impact of colonisation on the Aborigines who resisted' (44).
Haunted Economies : J. D. Hennessey's An Australian Bush Track and the 'Native' Gift Tanya Dalziell , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Settler Romances and the Australian Girl 2004; (p. 51-73, notes 146-149)
Lost and Found Cities and People : In Australia Graham Stone , 2001 single work review bibliography biography
— Appears in: Notes on Australian Science Fiction 2001; (p. 96-100)

— Review of The Lost Explorer : An Australian Story James Francis Hogan , 1890 single work novel ; The Savage Queen : A Romance of the Natives of Van Dieman's Land Hume Nisbet , 1891 single work novel ; The Golden Idol : A Tale of Adventures in Australia and New Zealand M. C. Walsh , 1891 single work novel ; The Golden Lake, or, The Marvellous History of a Journey Through the Great Lone Land of Australia Carlton Dawe , 1890 single work novel ; The Valley Council; Or, Leaves from the Journal of Thomas Bateman of Canbelego Station, N.S.W. Percy Clarke , 1891 single work novel ; The Secret of the Australian Desert Ernest Favenc , 1890 single work children's fiction ; The Fallen Race Austyn Granville , 1892 single work novel ; Mostyn Stayne Roderic Quinn , 1897 single work novel ; Marooned on Australia : Being the Narration by Diedrich Buys of His Discoveries and Exploits in Terra Australis Incognita about the Year 1630 Ernest Favenc , 1896 single work children's fiction ; Adventure of the Broad Arrow : An Australian Romance. Morley Roberts , 1897 single work novel ; An Australian Bush Track David Hennessey , 1896 single work novel ; The Treasure Cave of the Blue Mountains W. H. O. Smeaton , 1898 single work children's fiction ; The Last Lemurian : A Westralian Romance G. Firth Scott , 1896 single work novel ; Eureka Owen Hall , 1899 single work novel
Fabulating the Australian Desert : Australia's Lost Race Romances, 1890-1908 Melissa Bellanta , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Philament , April no. 3 2004;
Haunted Economies : J. D. Hennessey's An Australian Bush Track and the 'Native' Gift Tanya Dalziell , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Settler Romances and the Australian Girl 2004; (p. 51-73, notes 146-149)
y separately published work icon Mobilising Fictions or, Romancing the Australian Desert, 1890-1908 Melissa Bellanta , St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2009 Z1238252 2003 single work criticism 'This paper looks at Australia's "lost race romances", published between 1890 and 1908, so-called because they described the discovery of an unknown race in the middle of the Australian desert...' (Author's abstract)
Lemuria and Australian Dreams of an Inland Sea Michael Cathcart , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Lemuria , Winter vol. 1 no. 1 2006; (p. 32-47)
Cathcart reads a range of 'Lemurian novels,' examining their 'uncomplicated optimism about the future of White Australia, their trust that the key to that future lay beneath the earth, in the Great Australian Basin, and their attempts to grapple with the deadly impact of colonisation on the Aborigines who resisted' (44).
Britishness and Australian Popular Fiction : From the Mid-Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries Hsu-Ming Teo , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 46-66)
'The analysis offered here is [...], a panoptic perspective of the tangled skeins of literary imagination and imitation, gender and genre requirements, editorial control, market considerations and the sheer economics of the international book trade that knotted Australian popular literature into the cultural and economic fabric of the British empire.' (47)
Last amended 18 Oct 2018 11:27:46
X