In the following excerpt, Gibson documents European perceptions of Aborigines during the period 1770 to 1850, noting the prevailing double image of the Aborigine as either a degenerate barbarian or a noble savage.

In the following excerpt, Mitchell concentrates on the principal Australian novels written between 1844 and 1889, categorizing most of them as romances and appraising the language, style, plots, and themes in these works.

In the following excerpt, Hadgraft reviews the principal Australian novels of the nineteenth century.

In the following essay, originally published in 1856, Sinnett acknowledges the lack of any first-rate Australian novels by the middle of the nineteenth century but calls Catherine Helen Spence's Clara Morison “the best Australian novel” yet published and offers commentary on Charles Rowcroft's Tales of the Colonies.

In the following excerpt, Green examines the poetic works of Charles Harpur and summarizes the careers of several lesser Australian poets and verse dramatists.

In the following excerpt, Carter and Whitlock analyze the content, style, and public role of the Bulletin in the last decades of the nineteenth century.

In the following essay, White details the rise of national consciousness among Australian writers, artists, and intellectuals in the 1880s and 1890s.

In the following excerpt, Ackland analyzes the poetry and prose of Catherine Martin, emphasizing the problematic position of female writers in colonial Australia.

In the following essay, Healy surveys mid-nineteenth-century portrayals of Aborigines in Australian fiction, suggesting that the most impressive of these can be found in Charles de Boos's 1867 novel Fifty Years Ago.

In the following excerpt, Ackland focuses on Henry Kendall's verse of the 1860s in which the poet thematically recast many of the works of his mentor, Charles Harpur, while offering a deeply pessimistic outlook on matters of faith in his writing.

In the following excerpt, Healy presents a brief overview of nineteenth-century literary works that represent white Australian contact with Aborigines, and goes on to assess this process in regard to James Tucker's novel Ralph Rashleigh.

In the following excerpt, Attwood considers the theoretical issues surrounding white European interpretation of the Aborigine.

In the following essay, Maddock relates and interprets several mythic stories concerning Aboriginal contact with the outside world, including tales of meetings with Captain Cook and the Macassans.

In the following essay, Wilding follows the link between Marcus Clarke's descriptions of natural settings and his likely drug-induced exploration of internal landscapes in his short fiction.

In the following excerpt, Elliott evaluates Adam Lindsay Gordon as the quintessential poet of the Australian colonial landscape.

In the following essay, Berndt and Berndt identify and analyze a number of myth-narratives and songs from the Aboriginal oral tradition.

In the following essay, Green chronicles the history of the Bulletin and discusses other Australian literary periodicals published between 1880 and 1931.

In the following essay, Davison provides the cultural context for the Australian legend of the bush, a myth consolidated by the mostly urban-dwelling writers of Sydney's Bulletin during the 1890s.

In the following excerpt, Turner and Sutherland present an overview of Australian fiction from the later years of the nineteenth century, including the works of many notable female writers.

In the following essay, Kiernan encapsulates the range of modern views of nineteenth-century Australian literary history.

In the following essay, Cox discusses several of the most significant Australian poets from the first half of the nineteenth century.

In the following essay, Nesbitt recounts the debate between realism and romanticism conducted by Henry Lawson and “Banjo” Paterson in the pages of the Bulletin during the 1890s, suggesting its impact in accelerating Australian literary nationalism.

In the following essay, Wallace-Crabbe summarizes the literary period of 1888 to 1903 in Australia, commenting on the significance of the Bulletin and the writings of Henry Lawson, Joseph Furphy, and Christopher Brennan.

In the following essay, Jarvis explores the literary values of the Bulletin and their significance to Australian society in the 1880s.

In the following excerpt, Mitchell points to the major Australian fiction writers of the 1890s typically associated with the Bulletin—particularly Henry Lawson and Joseph Furphy.

In the following essay, Stilz studies international inspiration and domestic contention in the development of an Australian national literature in the 1880s.

In the following essay, Sheridan traces the principal themes in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women's writing regarding Aborigines and the related contexts of racial and sexual difference.

In the following excerpt, Jones and Jones survey convict, settler, and Anglo-Australian fiction prior to 1890.

In the following essay, Hamer highlights recurrent themes in Australian novels published between 1859 and 1889.

In the following excerpt, Pearce describes the suppressed but significant role of female journalists in late nineteenth-century Australia.

In the following essay, Bird presents My Brilliant Career and The Getting of Wisdom as two “incipiently subversive novels” that depict the struggles of women in a society that generally diminishes feminine social value.

In the following excerpt, Elliott and Mitchell define landscape and politics as the two principal subjects of nineteenth-century Australian poetry.

In the following excerpt, Heseltine comments on Australian prose and poetry of the nineteenth century, noting the persistent theme of personal uncertainty in many of these works.

In the following excerpt, Serle stresses the relationship of the Bulletin to the national literary awakening of Australia in the 1890s.

In the following essay, Healy evaluates the merits of an Aboriginal understanding of history as opposed to the standard, western conception of the past.

In the following essay, Rowley affirms the “imaginative formation of Australian national culture” by the late nineteenth-century writers who employed the images and themes of bush mythology in their works.

In the following excerpt, Cantrell highlights the uniqueness of 1890s Australian literature and the significant developments in Australian literary history that occurred during this decade.

In the following essay, originally published in 1958, Wilkes discusses the unique characteristics that defined Australian literature of the 1890s while commenting on major writers and works of the period.

In the following essay, Jarvis evaluates the fictional techniques favored by the Bulletin in the 1890s.

In the following essay, originally published in 1950, Levis discusses the opportunity provided by the Bulletin to Australian short fiction writers concerned with depicting Australia and its people.

In the following essay, Wright explains the origins of the symbolic dichotomy between the bush and the city in late nineteenth-century Australian poetry.

In the following essay, van Toorn describes the difficulties associated with the study of pre-twentieth-century Aboriginal writing.

In the following essay, Semmler illuminates A. B. “Banjo” Paterson's integral contribution to the Australian bush verse tradition in the 1890s as one of the most prominent and popular Bulletin writers.

In the following excerpt, Kiernan examines Australian literary criticism of the 1890s, focusing on A. G. Stephens as “the critical patron of Australian literature” and his twentieth-century successor, Vance Palmer.

In the following excerpt, Serle discusses significant Australian poets and novelists of the late colonial period.

In the following excerpt, Grattan offers a general assessment of Australian literature and remarks on five outstanding nineteenth-century Australian novels.

In the following excerpt, Indyk concentrates on the ominous presence of the Aborigine in the pastoral poetry of Charles Harpur and Henry Kendall.

In the following excerpt, Barnes remarks on the influence of A. G. Stephens as editor of the Bulletin's literary Red Page in the 1890s.

In the following excerpt, Lever stresses the public and social role of nineteenth-century poetry by Australian women, noting a general preoccupation with nation-building rather than introspection.