Rodney Hall is one of a group of writers, painters, and musicians who came to prominence in Brisbane in the 1960s. In a sense he began his career outside the literary mainstream, which was then located in Sydney and Melbourne. He is unusual in the breadth of his artistic concerns, since he is also an accomplished musician and is deeply interested in the visual arts. Cosmopolitan in his interests, he was one of the first writers of his generation to become aware of the significance of new movements occurring internationally in the arts and culture generally.

In his introduction to the most recent collection of Hall's poetry, John Kinsella, now a significant poet himself, writes of the influence Hall had on him:

I was sixteen and searching for . . . a voice that was both Australian and international. . . . Rodney Hall's [poetry] opened a territory I had not encountered before. I...