Early Australian fairy tales

AND why not fairies in Australia? Why should not our innumerable ferny glades, romantic valleys, mountainous passes, and lonesome glens, be peopled with fays and elves? Why should not Robin Goodfellow be found sitting jauntily astride the gorgeous waratah, or chasing the laughing jackass from its favourite bough? But all in good time. In the generations yet to come, unless the State schools make the little ones too learned, we shall have Australian fairy tales, stories in which goblin, kangaroos and emus, graceful sprites, and bearded magicians, will be found on every Fairyland in Australia. (1880, December 18, Illustrated Sydney News and New South Wales Agriculturalist and Grazier, p. 3) Excerpts presented at The Australian Fairy Tales Society Conference, 2016 KING DUNCE. Australian Fairy Tales by Atha Westbury  https://archive.org/details/australianfairyt00westiala                               Noel Biffin, son of a tinsmith, wants to be a king , and neglects his schoolwor