The Fencing of Wanderowna by Rolf Boldrewood: How Much Fact, How Much Fiction?

ABSTRACT From 1864 to 1867, Australian novelist Rolf Boldrewood (Thomas Alexander Browne) was resident manager of the Riverina sheep run Bundidjaree. During this time, he fenced the run but left penniless after droughts and falling prices broke him. These experiences formed the background to his 12-part serial, The Fencing of Wanderowna: A Tale of Squatting Life, published anonymously in the Australian Town and Country Journal from June to August 1873. In 1898, he compiled the serial into a novella: The Fencing of Wandaroona: A Riverina Reminiscence. In the novella, Scottish gentlemen squatters, brothers Gilbert and Hobbie Elliot, transition from shepherding to paddocking sheep. The story includes details of managing a sheep run, decision-making prior to fencing and during droughts, and a financial analysis comparing shepherding and fencing. Contemporaneous reviews in both England and Australia criticised the writing but accepted the authenticity of the narrative; however, while omitting many details, and containing flaws in the financial analysis, the story does contain some accurate, and often missing, information about life on a Riverina sheep run in the 1860s.

• Publication year

  2021

• Venue

  Journal of Australian studies

• Publication date

  2021-07-03

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1080/14443058.2021.1951809
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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