• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

Printed word [18 July 1915]

29 May 2012 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: Two extracts from the “Printed word” column, published in The Sunday Times (Perth), 18 July 1915. It says that Frances Oakes was the first white person born in Australia. The judge and poet Barron Field is also mentioned.]

Printed Word

Books and their builders

Recollections and reviews

From Tyrrell’s Ltd., Castlereagh-street, Sydney, we have received a copy of “Peeps at the Past,” a bundle of notes on early Australian history published under the auspices of the Australian Historical Society. Some of the notes are very interesting indeed, particularly those on Barron Field, the discovery or the Hawkesbury River, Nicholas Devine, and the first white settlers to cross the Blue Mountains. Others are unimportant to readers outside New South Wales. Among the illustrations is a portrait of Mrs. Frances Oakes, the first white child born in Australia. She died in 1883 at the age of 93.

* * *

The lines —
A land without antiquities; with one,
And only one, poor spot of classic ground —
That on which Cook first landed —

were (says the compiler of “Early Australian History”) written by Barron Field, the friend of Charles Lamb. Field had an exalted opinion of his poetic powers, but he was probably the only one who had. It was a brother judge, Roger Therry, who referred to his “Botany Bay Flowers” as having “long since lost their odor, and now lie ‘withered and gone,’” while a rival bard was unkind enough to perpetrate the following:—

Thy poems, Barron Field, I’ve read,
And thus adjudge their meed —
So poor a crop proclaims thy head
A barren field indeed!



Source:
The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), Sunday 18 July 1915, page 20 (page 4 of the second section)

Filed Under: articles, poetry Tagged With: Australian-born, Barron Field (1786-1846) (subject), poem, SourceTrove, year1915

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Writers, workers, and wages. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
Significant events and commemorative dates
A list of significant Australiana
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian explorers
Australian literature
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

Barcroft Boake
E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • Died on Active Service / Heroes of the Empire [Australian military personnel (WW1, WW2), 24 April 1943]
  • Flooded house on Villiers Street, Grafton (NSW) [postcard, circa 1950]
  • Fossicker’s claim, Daylesford [postcard, circa 1905-1912]
  • The Bathing Beach Flinders [postcard, early 20th Century]
  • The Lass of Yackandandah [poem, 11 June 1857]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Australian slang, words, and phrases
  • Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
  • No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • IAC on Those Names [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Paul on Those Names [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Floyd Black on Eurunderee [poem by Henry Lawson]
  • Warren fahey on The Institute of Australian Culture: An introduction
  • Julia Sweet nee Mooney on Laughing Mary [poem by John O’Brien]

For Australia

Copyright © 2025 · Log in