author
Dorothea Mackellar
1885–1968
Best known for the much-loved poem "My Country," this Australian writer captured both the beauty and harshness of the land with unusual feeling. Her work helped shape a lasting image of Australia that readers still recognize today.
1 Audiobook
The Witch-Maid, & Other Verses
by Dorothea Mackellar
About the author
Born in Sydney in 1885, Dorothea Mackellar was an Australian poet and fiction writer who grew up between city life and the countryside. She was privately educated, informally attended classes at the University of Sydney, and began publishing while still young.
She is most famous for "My Country," written when she was a teenager and later published in 1908. The poem became one of Australia's best-known literary works, remembered especially for its vivid sense of the Australian landscape and its mix of affection, toughness, and wonder.
Mackellar also published several books of verse, including The Closed Door and Other Verses and The Witch-Maid and Other Verses, and wrote fiction as well. In 1968 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to Australian literature, shortly before her death that same year.