The Drover's Wife (short story)

"The Drover's Wife"
Short story by Henry Lawson
Country	Australia
Language	English
Genre(s)	Drama
Publication
Published in	The Bulletin
Media type	print (magazine)
Publication date	23 July 1892

"The Drover's Wife" is a dramatic short story by the Australian writer Henry Lawson. It recounts the story of a woman left alone with her four children in an isolated hut in the outback in the late 19th century. ^[1]

The story was first published in the 23 July 1892 edition of The Bulletin magazine, ^[2] and was subsequently reprinted in a number of the author's collections as well as other anthologies.

Plot

A woman in the outback is isolated in a small hut with her four children. Her husband has been away droving for six months and near sunset one day a snake disappears under the house. The children are put to bed and the woman waits with her dog, Alligator, for the snake to re-appear. Near dawn the snake emerges and it is killed by the woman and dog. The story shows the struggle of a lone woman against nature.

Publications

"The Drover's Wife" first appeared in The Bulletin magazine on 23 July 1892. It was subsequently published in Short Stories in Prose and Verse, Lawson's 1894 collection of short stories and poetry. Since its initial publication it has become one of Henry Lawson's most re-published works.

• Short Stories in Prose and Verse by Henry Lawson (1894)
• While the Billy Boils by Henry Lawson (1896)
• The Bulletin Story Book : A Selection of Stories and Literary Sketches from 'The Bulletin' [1881–1901] edited by Alfred George Stephens (1901)
• Australian Short Stories edited by George Mackaness (1928)
• The Children's Lawson edited by Colin Roderick (1949)
• The Bulletin, 1 February 1950
• Hemisphere vol. 1 no. 2, (1957)
• Favourite Australian Stories edited by Colin Thiele (1963)
• A Century of Australian Short Stories edited by Cecil Hadgraft and R. B. J. Wilson (1963)
• Short Stories of Australia : The Lawson Tradition edited by Douglas Stewart (1967)
• While the Billy Boils : 87 Stories from the Prose Works of Henry Lawson by Henry Lawson (1970)
• The Bush Undertaker and Other Stories edited by Colin Roderick (1970)
• Henry Lawson : Selected Stories edited by Brian Matthews (1971)
• Best Australian Short Stories edited by Douglas Stewart and Beatrice Davis (1971)
• Henry Lawson's Best Stories by Henry Lawson (1973)
• The Old Bulletin Reader : The Best Stories from The Bulletin 1881–1901 (1973)
• An Australian Selection : Short Stories By Lawson, Palmer, Porter, White and Cowan edited by John Barnes (1974)
• The World of Henry Lawson edited by Walter Stone (1974)
• The Bulletin, 29 January 1980
• Short Stories by Henry Lawson (1981)
• Prose Works of Henry Lawson by Henry Lawson (1982)
• The Essential Henry Lawson : The Best Works of Australia's Greatest Writer edited by Brian Kiernan (1982)
• A Camp-Fire Yarn : Henry Lawson Complete Works 1885–1900 edited by Leonard Cronin (1984)
• Henry Lawson Favourites by Henry Lawson (1984)
• My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years edited by Leonie Kramer (1985)
• Henry Lawson : An Illustrated Treasury by Henry Lawson (1985)
• The Penguin Henry Lawson : Short Stories edited by John Barnes (1986)
• Henry Lawson's Mates : The Complete Stories of Henry Lawson by Henry Lawson (1987)
• Australian Short Stories edited by Carmel Bird (1991)
• The Penguin Book of 19th Century Australian Literature edited by Michael Ackland (1993)
• An Anthology of Australian Literature edited by Ch'oe Chin-yong and Cynthia Van Den Driesen (1995)
• The Arnold Anthology of Post-Colonial Literatures in English edited by John Thieme (1996)
• 200 Years of Australian Writing : An Anthology edited by James F. H. Moore (1997)
• Classic Australian Short Stories edited by Maggie Pinkney (2001)
• Henry Lawson edited by Geoffrey Blainey (2002)
• The Campfire Yarns of Henry Lawson by Henry Lawson (2009)
• Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature edited by Nicholas Jose, Kerryn Goldsworthy, Anita Heiss, David McCooey, Peter Minter, Nicole Moore and Elizabeth Webby (2009)

Cultural references

• The Drover's Wife is a 1945 painting by Australian artist Russell Drysdale. While the painting does not specifically illustrate a scene from the story, it takes its title from it.
• Murray Bail's story, "The Drover's Wife" (1975), is based on Drysdale's painting and is narrated by the woman's first husband. ^[1]
• Frank Moorhouse's story, "The Drover's Wife" (1980), satirises the bush ethos of Lawson and academics who study him. ^[1]
• Barbara Jefferis's story, "The Drover's Wife" (1980), provides a feminist viewpoint of the story. ^[1]
• Damien Broderick's story, "The Drover's Wife's Dog" (1991), narrates the story from the point of view of the dog. ^[1]
• Ryan O'Neill's 2018 collection of stories, The Drover's Wives: 99 Reinterpretations of Henry Lawson's Australian Classic, remixes and revises Lawson's story in 99 different ways. ^[3]

On screen and stage

In 1968, the Australian Broadcasting Commission created a 45-minute adaptation of the story, directed by Giancarlo Manara and featuring Clarissa Kaye in the lead role. ^[4]

In 2016 the story was adapted into a play by Leah Purcell. It premiered at the Belvoir Theatre in September 2016, and was directed by Leticia Cáceres. ^{[5] [6] [7]} Purcell's film version, entitled The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson , premiered at the South by Southwest film festival on 18 March 2021 ^[8] and was released in Australia and the UK in May 2022. ^{[9] [10]} Purcell's play was adapted into an opera with music by George Palmer, part of the 2026 opening program of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre's Glasshouse Theatre, with Nina Korbe in the title role and Tahu Matheson conducting. ^[11]

References

1. The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, 2nd edition, p. 241
2. Lawson, Henry (23 July 1892). "The Drover's Wife". The Bulletin . p. 21. Retrieved 4 August 2025– via Trove.
3. O'Neill, Ryan (July 2018). The Drover's Wives: 99 Reinterpretations of Henry Lawson's Australian Classic. Brio. ISBN   9781925589290.
4. Nan Musgrove (18 September 1968). "The Bush for Rolf – section: Killing a snake with conviction". The Australian Women's Weekly . Vol. 36, no. 16. p. 15. Retrieved 7 May 2019– via Trove, National Library of Australia.
5. "The Drover's Wife media release". Belvoir St Theatre. 8 August 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
6. Hennessy, Kate (22 September 2016). "The Drover's Wife review – plot twist leaves Australian classic spinning on its axis". The Guardian . Retrieved 17 October 2016.
7. Blake, Elissa (17 September 2016). "Leah Purcell pulls no punches in her new show The Drover's Wife". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 17 October 2016.
8. "Film Grid – SXSW Online 2021". SXSW. 2021. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
9. "The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson: behind the scenes". Screen Australia . 26 April 2022. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
10. "The Drover's Wife review — an Australian period drama of widescreen confidence" . Financial Times . 12 May 2022. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
11. Richard Watts (4 August 2025). "The Drover's Wife – The Opera to have 2026 world premiere at QPAC's new Glasshouse Theatre". artshub.com.au. Retrieved 4 August 2025.

External links

• The full text of The Drover's Wife at Wikisource
• 1968 TV adaptation at AustLit (subscription required)
• Martin Flanagan and James Ley discuss the story at the Wheeler Centre: Australian Literature 102: Henry Lawson: The Drover's Wife