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My career as a reader

My thesis chapters will begin with an image and  'personal voice', a reflective conversation about my thoughts at different times during the thesis process. I took this photo for the chapter on early Australian children's literature, rummaging through my childhood books and trying to choose favourites. Sadly Bottersnikes and Gumbles is no longer there, perhaps fallen to pieces or lost in a move. Maybe I just borrowed it from the Mount Waverley Library during my early career as a reader. It seems there are many readers blogging about it.  Buying a secondhand copy could set you back over a hundred dollars. Could it be republished as an eBook? I  like the idea that reading is a career  (Fairbairn and Fairbairn),  a ' profession', with educational requirements, and areas of specialisation. I can trace my 'reading career' by perusing my bookshelf: distinctive eras of fairy tales, school stories, science fiction and biography jumbled up, sometimes two books dee

Welcome to the Australian Fairy Tale Society

Exciting to hear about the formation of a  national not-for-profit society focussed on collecting, preserving, discussing, sharing, and creating Australian fairy tales. Australian fairy tales reflect our unique environment -  don't expect handsome princes on white stallions to rescue fair maidens. Shy stalwart bushmen who are at ease in the bush and mindful of old 'hags' are more adept at such challenges. Mermaids swim in the Yarra river, not to lure men to their doom, but with a different attitude, nurturing and protecting those humans living in communities close by.  Rather than the Big Bad Wolf, in one instance a small girl meets a bunyip who admires her goodness and scholarly achievements and rather than eat her up lectures her on the dangers of alcohol. These characters created by Westbury, Ernst, Whitfeld and Lockeyear are just a small sample of those waiting to be heralded. I am planning a trip to Sydney for the inaugural Australian Fairy Tale Society Conference (

Is the First Draft really a first draft?

Today I feel like Margaret Mitchell with her draft of 'Gone With The Wind', a suitcase full of unfinished chapters, multiple drafts of chapters and about six months of revision ahead of me to complete a first 'complete' 'First Draft'. Looking through the folders of drafts and re-drafts and mergers I feel quite amazed that I have written so much and quite daunted at the task of making sure this tome is grammatically error free with no errant full stops or semi-colons and follows a line of logical arguments paragraph by paragraph through eighty thousand words. There is no holiday from a PhD. It is always there lurking: looking for connections, seeking the undiscovered and reminding of the need to write, write, write.  A new connection today delighted me.  Ernst mentioned again. The Librarian opened  The Age  and there was a two page article on Sister Agnes and her fairy tales (October 24, p. 18-19). Interestingly, the full article Told in the Bush: Sister Agnes

A Meeve relative: A research sidetrack in Tasmania

When map reading I note that we are close to the place a distant relative of grandson no 2 died and was  buried. The family story is that he was struck by lightning but a little research indicates he was struck by a tree limb that he was felling.   Something to beware of when researching: how time and re-telling changes fact. I also note how first aid practices have changed. A sad story. INQUEST MARRAWAH  An inquest was held at Marrawah  Friday, before Mr. H. G. Spicer, coroner,  and a jury (Mr. K. C. Laughton fore man) touching the death of Michael Wil liam Meeve, which occurred at Marra wah on the previous day.  Sergeant Donoghue, of Stanley, repre sented the district police, and made the  necessary arrangements for holding the  enquiry.  Bernard Charles Cronin, a farmer, resid ing near Marrawah, deposed to being ac quainted with the deceased, whom he had  employed to assist him in clearing on his  farm. Witness and the deceased, Meeve,  started to work in company on the morn ing

Wattle Day and a contemporary response to Olga Ernst's fairy tales.

http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/items/ 1399498/badge-wattle-day-australia-1914-1918 Every so often I quietly 'google' for new references to Olga Ernst and today, appropriately as it is 'Wattle Day', I was rewarded with two new references to Olga's fairy tales. I have been researching Olga's contribution for almost four years and I am thrilled to see some momentum building through the interest of others in her story. From the Storytelling Guild's blog  Q&A about Olga Ernst in this interview with Belinda Calderone Vonny Kemister is testing a story to tell at the Botanic Garden. Vonny’s story comes from Olga Earnst’s [sic] Fairy Tales from The Land of the Wattle (1904) A reference to my talk at Brighton Historical Society in 2012 My research would not be so rich or so accurate without the help of Ernst relatives who have sourced further information, fellow researchers, friends in the Melbourne Lutheran Trinity community and of course my c

Frank Tate

During the same period that Ernst finished her schooling, began work as a pupil teacher and attended the Pupil Teachers School in Adelaide (1904) educational ideas in Victoria were also evolving under the direction of Frank Tate. Tate was determined that teachers should be well trained, cultured and championed the reform curriculum using the ideas of the ‘New Education’ movement which had its roots in Europe (Gregory, 1997: 14). With the aim of establishing universal literacy and minimising crime through improved social and personal life, subjects were taught using formal methods of rote learning, silent work and drills teaching. Curriculum included the basic elements of reading, writing and arithmetic and geography, grammar, history, singing and, for girls, needlework (Long,1908; 130,155,159). Frank Tate, Director of Education, argued against the old painful ‘unintelligent memory methods that weren’t true teaching’ and suggested that the new programme should aim ‘at training self reli

A chapter on Pedagogy

I have spent much of the holidays writing in the quiet of the domed LaTrobe reading room at the State Library where Snugglepot & Mr. Goanna welcome visitors. Ernst had begun to teach at a time when educational ideas were changing. Frank Tate, Director of Education (1902-1939), argued against the old painful ‘unintelligent memory methods that weren’t true teaching’ and suggested that the new programme should aim ‘at training self reliance and ability to acquire knowledge at first hand’. The revised program (1902) consisted of nature study (elemental) science, manual training (brushwork, paperwork, or school gardening), drawing (including geometry, freehand and use of compass, ruler, mid set square), singing, health and special lessons reading and explanation, composition, word building and spelling, penmanship, map-drawing, geography, parsing, analysis and derivative roots, poetry, tables, arithmetic, measuration, history and exploration lessons. There was opposition to the '