Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar, (1 July 1885 – 14 January 1968) was an Australian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and fiction writer. Her poem '' My Country'' is widely known in Australia, especially its second stanza, which begins: "''I love a sunburnt country/A land of sweeping plains,/Of ragged mountain ranges,/Of droughts and flooding rains."''

Life

The third child and only daughter of physician and parliamentarian Sir

Charles Mackellar Sir Charles Kinnaird Mackellar (5 December 184414 July 1926) was an Australian politician and surgeon. He served in the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1885 to 1925, with the exception of a period of 50 days in 1903 when he filled a C ...

and his wife Marion Mackellar (née Buckland), the daughter of Thomas Buckland, she was born in the family home ''

Dunara ''Dunara'' is a heritage-listed residence located at Point Piper, in the Municipality of Woollahra local government area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1882 to 1883. It is also known as Dorothea Mackellar birthplace. ...

'' at

Point Piper Point Piper is a small, harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, east of the Sydney CBD, in the local government area known as the Municipality of Woollahra. Point Piper has been historically regar ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia in 1885. Her later home was ''Cintra'' at

Darling Point Darling Point is a harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, Australia. It is 4 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of Woollahra Council. Darling Point is bounded by Sydney Harbour to t ...

(built in 1882 by John Mackintosh for his son James), and in 1925, she commissioned a summer cottage (in reality a substantial home with colonnaded verandah overlooking Pittwater), "Tarrangaua" at Lovett Bay, an isolated location on

Pittwater Pittwater is a semi-mature tide dominated drowned valley estuary, located about north of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies of water that separate greater Metropolitan Sydney from the Ce ...

reachable only by boat (this home is currently the residence of the novelist and author Susan Duncan and her husband, Bob Story, and features prominently in a number of Duncan's books). A woman of independent means, she published poetry and other works between 1908 and 1926 and was active in the Sydney literary scene of the 1930s, being involved with the Sydney Publishers, Editors and Novelists Club, the Bush Book Club of New South Wales and the Sydney P.E.N. Club. In her later years she ceased writing and, suffering poor health, her last eleven years were spent in a nursing home in Randwick where she died in 1968, aged 82. She is buried in Waverley Cemetery, in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. 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.

Literary works

Although she was raised in a professional urban family, Mackellar's poetry is usually regarded as quintessential

bush poet The bush ballad, bush song or bush poem is a style of poetry and folk music that depicts the life, character and scenery of the Australian bush. The typical bush ballad employs a straightforward rhyme structure to narrate a story, often one of a ...

ry, inspired by her experience on her brothers' farms near Gunnedah, in the north-west of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. Her best-known poem is '' My Country'', written at age 19 while homesick in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and first published in the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

''Spectator'' in 1908 under the title ''Core of My Heart'': the second stanza of this poem is among the best known in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Four volumes of her collected verse were published: ''The Closed Door'' (published in 1911, contained the first appearance of ''My Country''); ''The Witch Maid, and Other Verses'' (1914); ''Dreamharbour'' (1923); and ''Fancy Dress'' (1926). In addition to writing poems, Mackellar also wrote novels, one by herself, ''Outlaw's Luck'' (1913), and at least two in collaboration with childhood friend

Ruth Bedford Ruth Bedford (2 August 1882 – 24 July 1963) was an Australian poet, playwright and fiction writer. Career Born in Petersham, Sydney, to Alfred Percival Bedford and Agnes Victoria Stephen, daughter of Sir Alfred Stephen, an influential chief ...

. 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.

Honours

In the New Year's Day Honours of 1968, Mackellar was appointed an Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

for her contribution to

Australian literature Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies; as such, ...

. She died two weeks later in

Paddington, New South Wales Paddington is an upscale inner-city area of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Located east of the Sydney central business district, Paddington lies across two local government areas. The portion south of Oxford Street lies wi ...

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.

Legacy

A federal electorate covering half of Sydney's

Northern Beaches The Northern Beaches is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, near the Pacific coast. This area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the entra ...

is named in her honour as well as Mackellar Crescent in the

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

suburb of

Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...

. On

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port Ja ...

, 26 January 1983, a memorial to Mackellar was unveiled and dedicated in ANZAC Park, Gunnedah. 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. 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. In 1984, Gunnedah resident Mikie Maas created the "Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards", which has grown into a nationwide poetry competition for Australian school students.

References

External links

Dorothea Mackellar biography page at Gunnedah Tourism

Dorothea Mackellar portrait
by Norman Grosskopf * * *
''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 o
australianscreen online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackellar, Dorothea 1885 births 1968 deaths Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire Writers from New South Wales Burials at Waverley Cemetery Australian women poets Deaths from falls 20th-century Australian poets 20th-century Australian women writers 19th-century Australian women Australian book and manuscript collectors