Early Australian fairy tales

B ACKGROUND READING FOR THE MAGIC GUN. Robyn Kellock Floyd Questions posed by  Jo Henwood  AFTS Ring Maiden How significant is this story as an early example of an Australian fairy tale? From the 1850s Australian fairy tales appeared in newspapers and a small selection of dedicated fairy tale books were published. Children’s authors in Australia began to adapt the fairies of traditional European oral, and literary tales. The quest to compile national collections in Europe and England was seen as important with the Grimms and Harland collections being two examples. With no oral tradition the descendants of white settlers borrowed plots and magical beings, commandeered the Australian environment, most notably ‘the bush’, and sometimes the Bunyip, and created fairy tales that attempted to imbue an Australian essence. The intent of these authors to give Australian children their own Australian fairyland was clear. List of some of these books written before 1904 ca