Barbara Baynton – författare

Squeaker, a selector, is slowly clearing his piece of the Australian bush. However, lazy and shiftless, he leaves most of the work to his uncomplaining and hardworking mate. When she is crushed under a falling yellow gum, Squeaker responds only with selfish impatience. Taught to endlessly endure by her harsh surroundings, Squeaker''s mate carries the burden of her injury quietly, with only her old dog for comfort.Published as part of Barbara Baynton''s iconic collection Bush Studies in 1902, Squeaker''s Mate is a visceral and lyrical story about the hostility faced by European settlers in the Australian bush during settlement. From an era when literature focused almost entirely on men and male experiences, Squeaker''s Mate is an important depiction of the unique trials and strengths of women.

Bush Studies (1902) is a collection of short stories that explore the dark side of the Australian bush experience: loneliness, isolation and danger. The stories, often depicting female suffering, are grimly realistic, in contrast to the masculine romantic notions of the outback as represented by Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson. All six stories in Bush Studies deal with the great themes of birth and death, although only 'Bush Church' renders its theme as comedy, with its disorderly scenes of a church service and multiple christenings gone awry. This new edition of Bush Studies, with an introduction by Susan Sheridan, is a part of the Australian Classics Library series, which is intended to make classic texts of Australian literature more widely available for secondary school and undergraduate university classrooms, and for the general reader. The series is co-edited by Emeritus Professor Bruce Bennett of the University of New South Wales and Robert Dixon, Professor of Australian Literature at the University of Sydney, in conjunction with SETIS, Sydney University Press, AustLit and the Copyright Agency Limited.