Dorothea Mackellar

Born in Sydney on 1 July 1885, Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar was an Australian poet and fiction writer whose name remains closely tied to her much-loved poem My Country. She grew up in a prosperous family and spent time in both city and country settings, experiences that helped shape the vivid sense of place in her writing.

Mackellar published poetry from a young age, and My Country first appeared in 1908 before becoming one of the best-known poems in Australia. Although that poem is her most famous work, she also wrote other verse and fiction, building a body of writing marked by strong feeling, musical language, and a lasting connection to the Australian landscape.

She died in 1968, but her work has endured for generations. Readers still return to her for the warmth, clarity, and emotional force of her poetry, especially the way she captured both the beauty and harshness of Australia.