Bush Studies

Description

Bush Studies, written during the 1890s, was first published to considerable critical acclaim. These powerful and haunting stories of pioneering Australia give voice to the forgotten women of those times. the harsh lives of pioneer women in the Australian bush are difficult to imagine today. Barbara Baynton's stories present the tragedy, terror and back-breaking work that such women faced. these are not the stories of mates gathered round the fire, but of the dark loneliness of women. Not only are there fences to be built and a living to be coaxed from the land, but babies to be born - or buried - and the dangers of profound isolation to be endured, as well as the cruelties, or plain disappointments of men.

Barbara Baynton was born in 1857 to Irish immigrant parents in Scone, New South Wales. She wrote newspaper articles, poems and sketches, some of which were published in the Bulletin. After her husband's death in 1904, Barbara travelled between Australia and England, publishing the short novel Human Toll in 1907. She died in 1929.