Swagging

Press, Volume C, Issue 29674, 18 November 1961, Page 3

Swagging

Grief, Gaiety and Aborigines. By W. E. Harney. Robert Hale. 191 pp. Illustrated. "Bill” Harney is a born story-teller. He has written much, but this story, largely autobiographical, will have a special niche of its own. It is a personal one and the title aptly describes its contents. Thirty years ago Australia was in such economic distress that thousands were on the “dole” of whom the author was one. This, largely, is the story of the “doleites.” His wife, Linda, was part-aborigi-nal and because of this not a little of the narrative is concerned with the aborigines. their habits, traditions and their corruption through contact with the whites. The tenderness of the story of her passing is moving. “Bill” Harney is left with two children; the girl at the age of eight dies on the operating table, the boy at 15. attempting to rescue a boy from drowning is himself drowned. The picture of the Northern Territory has seldom been drawn so well. The moods of nature, the swaggers, the group round the camp fire—and through it all the sad procession of. men on the dole seeking work and seldom finding it. The author’s ability of getting alongside men is responsible for many of the yarns recorded in the book. The bravery and the gaiety of men who live in knocked-up huts, the unpredictable ways of the aborigines and the tragedy that stalks through the bush and settlements are described in a factual manner yet with the touch of an artist in words.

Here is a picture of Australia not given in many books of that country. It is fascinating, sad and gay.