W. A. (William Alexander) Cawthorne

author

W. A. (William Alexander) Cawthorne

1825–1897

An early South Australian schoolteacher, artist, and writer, he is remembered for vivid work that captured colonial life and Aboriginal culture. He is also linked with one of Australia’s earliest children’s picture books, giving his writing a small but distinctive place in literary history.

1 Audiobook

The Legend of Kupirri, or, The Red Kangaroo An Aboriginal Tradition of the Port Lincoln Tribe

The Legend of Kupirri, or, The Red Kangaroo An Aboriginal Tradition of the Port Lincoln Tribe

by W. A. (William Alexander) Cawthorne

About the author

Born in London in either 1824 or 1825, he migrated to South Australia in 1841 and built a varied career as a schoolmaster, sketcher, watercolourist, and businessman. Sources describe him as deeply interested in Aboriginal welfare and note that his drawings and paintings from the 1840s and 1850s are valuable records of South Australian Aboriginal life and early colonial society.

Alongside teaching and art, he wrote and illustrated works of his own. He is especially associated with The Legend of Kupirri, or The Red Kangaroo and Who Killed Cockatoo?, the latter often described as one of the earliest Australian children’s picture books.

Cawthorne died in Adelaide in 1897. Today, his reputation rests on that unusual mix of roles: educator, observer, artist, and storyteller, with surviving papers and artworks that continue to interest libraries, historians, and readers.