Seven Little Australians is a classic Australian children's literature novel by Ethel Turner, published in 1894. Set mainly in Sydney in the 1880s, it relates the adventures of the seven mischievous Woolcot children, their stern army father Captain Woolcot, and faithful young stepmother Esther.
Turner wrote the novel in 1893 while living at Inglewood in what was then rural Lindfield (now Woodlands, Killara, New South Wales), having moved there from the inner city suburb of Paddington in 1891. The suburban bushland surroundings quickly became important in Turner's stories. On her 21st birthday, Ethel wrote in her diary, 'Seven L. Aust. – sketched it out.' (24 January 1893)[1] In 1994 the novel was the only book by an Australian author to have been continuously in print for 100 years.[2] The book's original handwritten manuscript is held by the State Library of NSW.[1] The full text of the manuscript has been digitized and can be viewed on the Library's website. The original title of the novel, as written by Turner, was 'Seven Pickles'.[3]
It has been extensively adapted for other media, including as a film, two different television mini-series, various stage plays and a stage musical.
Characters
The book's protagonists are the seven Woolcot children, from oldest to youngest:
Meg (real name Margaret), 16: naive, romantic, eldest (but immature) sister and sometime surrogate mother to the younger children.
Pip (real name Philip), 14: eldest brother, handsome, intelligent but badly-behaved.
Judy (real name Helen), 13: imaginative and lively, Pip's partner-in-crime, often leads the others into mischief.
Nell (real name Elinor), 10: beautiful, slightly wistful child.
Bunty (real name John), 6: described as 'fat and very lazy'. Bunty can be selfish and annoying but loves his family.
Baby (real name Winifred), 4: the most well-behaved of the lot, was only a baby when her mother died.
'The General' (real name Francis Rupert Burnand), the baby; only natural child of Esther, who is stepmother to the other children.
Plot summary
The seven children of the title live in 1880s Sydney with their father, an army Captain who has little understanding of his children, and their 20-year-old stepmother Esther, who can exert little discipline on them. Accordingly, they wreak havoc wherever possible, for example by interrupting their parents while they entertain guests and asking for some of their dinner (implying to the guests that the children's own dinner is inadequate).
After a prank by Judy and Pip embarrasses Captain Woolcot at his military barracks, he orders that ringleader Judy be sent away to boarding school in the Blue Mountains.
Meg comes under the influence of an older girl, Aldith, and tries to improve her appearance according to the fashions of the day. She and Aldith make the acquaintance of two young men, but Meg believes she has fallen in love with the older brother of one, Alan. When Aldith and Meg arrange to meet the young men for a walk, Meg is embarrassed after a note goes astray and Alan comes to the meeting instead and reproaches her for becoming 'spoilt', rather than remaining the sweet young girl she was. Meg returns home and later faints, having tight-laced her waist under pressure from Aldith until it affects her health.
Unhappy at being away from her siblings, Judy runs away from school, returns home, and hides in the barn. Despite her ill-health as a result of walking for a week to get home, the other children conceal her presence from their father, but that presence is disclosed after he cruelly whips one of them. He plans to send her back to school, but softens in fear when he sees her coughing up blood. When the doctor reports she has pneumonia and is at risk of tuberculosis, she is allowed to remain at home.
To assist Judy's recuperation, Esther's parents invite her and the children to their sheep station Yarrahappini. One day the children go on a picnic far away from the property's main house. A ringbarked tree falls and threatens to crush 'the General', the youngest sibling and Esther's own child. Judy, who promised 'on her life' not to allow him to be harmed on the picnic, rushes to catch him and her body protects him from the tree. However her back is broken and she dies before help can be fetched.
After burying Judy on the property, the family returns home to Sydney sobered by her death. While ostensibly things remain the same, each character is slightly changed by their experience. In particular Captain Woolcot regrets the fact that he never really understood Judy. His remaining children are now 'dearer to his heart', though he shows it very little more than before.
1894 Edition: Tettawonga's Lost Story
There is an Aboriginal narrative of significant interest in the original edition that was omitted in all editions from its first republication in 1897 until its centenary edition in 1994.[4]
The Woolcot children, while holidaying at the cattle station, listen to Mr Gillet telling an Aboriginal story he "got at second-hand" from Tettawonga, the station's Aboriginal stockman.
"'Once upon a time' (Judy sniffed at the old-fashioned beginning), 'once upon a time,' said Mr. Gillet, 'when this young land was still younger, and incomparably more beautiful, when Tettawonga's ancestors were brave and strong and happy as careless children, when their worst nightmare had never shown them so evil a time as the white man would bring their race, when--' 'Oh, get on! muttered Pip impatiently. 'Well,' said Mr Gillet, 'when, in short, an early Golden Age wrapped the land in its sunshine, a young kukuburra and its mate spread their wings and set off towards the purple mountains beyond the gum trees..."[5]
Clare Bradford suggested in her book Reading Race "The main effect of the omission of Tettawonga's story is...to achieve a less problematic version of the Australian past than the one which prevails in the book's first edition."[6] Brenda Niall has suggested that the omission may have been due to the extensive advertising in the first reprint, with the commercial editors capitalising on the book's success by removing a digression from the narrative that was considered expendable, and replacing it with advertising space they could sell.[7]
Follow-up Books
Ethel Turner wrote three more books featuring the Woolcot family.
The Family at Misrule tells the story of the family five years on, including new baby girl Esther.
Judy and Punch describes Judy's experiences at boarding school, including meeting a boy named Punch while they are both on the train to school.
Little Mother Meg describes Meg becoming a mother and raising her own children; and Peter (the General) and Essie (baby Esther) going on an adventure when they explore their neighbours' garden through a hole in the fence.
This was followed in 1953 by a BBC-television 6-part miniseries.[10]
The book was made into a 10 episode television series in 1973 by ABC Television in Australia,[11][12] which was largely faithful to the book. Differences include the fact that Judy was thin and waiflike in the book, she is more solidly built in the series. Meg's hair was long and dark, but in the book her hair is long and blonde.
A musical theatre adaptation ran in Melbourne and Sydney from 1988.[2] It is now a popular production for local musical societies and high schools to perform.
An acclaimed site-specific stage adaptation by playwright Julia Britton and directed by Robert Chuter, was produced at the National Trust historic property – Rippon Lea from 26 December 1997 – 26 January 1998.
A new play in two acts was written by Anne Scott-Pendlebury. It was directed by C.A Duff, produced by The Wangaratta Players Inc and premiered at the Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre as part of the WPAC Opening Festival and Wangaratta City Golden Jubilee Celebrations. This production also featured musical interludes of Miriam Hyde's music played by local children.
Chapter List
Chiefly Descriptive
Fowl for Dinner
Virtue Not Always Rewarded
The General Sees Active Service
"Next Monday Morning"
The Sweetness of Sweet Sixteen
"What Say You to Falling in Love?"
A Catapult and a Catastrophe
Consequences
Bunty in the Light of a Hero
The Truant
Swish, Swish!
At Thy Last
Uninvited Guests
The Squatter's Invitation
Three Hundred Miles in the Train
Yarrahappini
Cattle-Drafting at Yarrahappini
The Picnic at Krangi-Bahtoo
A Pale-Blue Hair Ribbon
Little Judy
When the Sun Went Down
And Last
Audiobook adaptations
"Seven Little Australians" (2009 Audio Book) Published by Kalliope Audiobooks, narrated by Drew deCarvalho, directed by Roy Yokelson of Antland Productions
"Seven Little Australians" (2009 digital talking book) DAISY digital talking book produced by the Association for the Blind of Western Australia
Little Women is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888).
Patricia Ethell McDonald was an Australian radio actor and actor of stage and television and the daughter of one of Australia's most prominent electric radio engineers and public servants, Arthur Stephen McDonald and his wife, milliner Edith Roseina Ethell. Her grandfather, bootmaker John McDonald, was born in Victoria, and married Eliza Mary Stevenson. Although she was not the first female Gold Logie winner in Australia, which was entertainer and TV host Lorrae Desmond, she was the first female character actor to win for serial Number 96.
Ethel Turner was an English-born Australian novelist and children's literature writer.
Mary Reibey née Haydock was an English-born merchant, shipowner and trader who was transported to Australia as a convict. After gaining her freedom, she was viewed by her contemporaries as a community role model and became legendary as a successful businesswoman in the colony.
Carmelina Marchetta is an Australian writer and teacher. Marchetta is best known as the author of teen novels, Looking for Alibrandi, Saving Francesca and On the Jellicoe Road. She has twice been awarded the CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers, in 1993 and 2004. For Jellicoe Road she won the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association, recognizing the year's best book for young adults.
Jackie French, born Jacqueline Anne French, is an Australian author who has written across a number of genres for both adults and children. Her most notable works include Rain Stones, Diary of a Wombat, and The Girl from Snowy River. Several of her books have been recommended for teaching the Australian Curriculum. French lives in Braidwood, New South Wales, with her second husband Bryan Sullivan.
Cecilia May Gibbs MBE was an Australian children's author, illustrator, and cartoonist. She is best known for her gumnut babies, and the book Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.
Markus Zusak is an Australian writer with Austrian and German roots. He is best known for The Book Thief and The Messenger, two novels which became international bestsellers. He won the Margaret A. Edwards Award in 2014.
Ursula Dubosarsky is an Australian writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults, whose work is characterised by a child's vision and comic voice of both clarity and ambiguity. She has won nine national literary prizes, including five New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, more than any other writer in the Awards' 30-year history. She was appointed the Australian Children's Laureate for 2020–2021.
The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction.
Dame Mary Ethel Hughes GBE was the second wife of Billy Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923. She was the daughter of a well-to-do grazier, and grew up in country New South Wales. She married Hughes in 1911, when she was 37 and he was 48; their only daughter was born in 1915.
Deborah Mary Niland is an New Zealand–born Australian artist, known as a writer and illustrator of children's books. Some of her most popular books include Annie's Chair, When The Wind Changed, Mulga Bill's Bicycle, and Chatterbox. In 2006 she won The Children's Book of the Year – Early Childhood, with her book Annie's Chair.
Seven Little Australians is a 1939 Australian film directed by Arthur Greville Collins and starring Charles McCallum. It is an adaptation of Ethel Turner's 1894 novel in a contemporary setting.
Jean Curlewis was an Australian writer. The daughter of Ethel Turner and Herbert Curlewis, she battled tuberculosis for many years before dying at 32 years of age.
Esther Paterson Gill was an Australian artist, book-illustrator and cartoonist.
Judy was a British pre-teen and teen girl's magazine, primarily in comic book form. Judy was extant from 1960 to 1991. From 1991 to 1997 it was combined with another title in Mandy and Judy magazine. Judy was published by DC Thomson.
Woodlands is a heritage-listed residence at 1 Werona Avenue, in the Sydney suburb of Killara in the Ku-ring-gai Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Henry Austin Wilshire, and built from 1884. It is also known as Inglewood; Inglenook. The property is privately owned. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 13 October 2006.
Seven Little Australians was a 10-part TV series that aired on ABC Television in 1973. Captain Woolcot is a widower with seven children. He marries again and his new wife takes on all the trials of bringing up seven spirited children. The mini-series was based on Ethel Turner's best-selling novel, Seven Little Australians. Music for the television miniseries was composed by Bruce Smeaton.
Felicity Castagna is an Award winning Australian writer. She won the young adult fiction prize at the 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Awards for her book, The Incredible Here and Now. She won the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for her book, Girls in Boys' Cars Writing for Young Adults.
Nan Hunt (1918–2015) was an Australian children's writer who also wrote as N. L. Ray. She was a two-time winner of the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
