Australian History
Book Details

Horse and Rider in Australian Legend

Nanette Mantle

An engrossing exploration of the myth of the stockworker, the bushranger and other heroic horseback figures through Australian literature and art.

Opinion

“Lavishly illustrated and highly original, this book is an engrossing testament to the enduring and iconic appeal of the horse, and its rider, in Australia’s past.”
(Racing NSW, December 2004)

“Mantle has much learning at her disposal and if you don’t find the old-time Australian legend passe, or if you’re the kind of person who feels at home on a horse, the theme itself is of great appeal.”
(Owen Richardson, The Age, 30/10/04)

About this Title

In headlong gallop through brake and brushwood, over broken ground and fallen timber, after stragglers that often turn fiercely to bay . . . horse and rider are expert at their work . . . For proof of noble horsemanship the Australian bush may challenge all the equestrian nations in the world. English fox-hunting is mere child’s play compared with the feats performed by the stockman . . . who disdain the shepherd’s slothful life.
‘An Australian Journalist’, The Emigrant in Australia, 1852

Since 1788—when seven horses arrived with the First Fleet—until the present day, the horse and its rider has been a powerful symbol galloping across the Australian landscape. In this engrossing and original work, Nanette Mantle explores the myth of the stockworker, the boundary rider, the bushranger and sportsperson among other heroic horseback figures through nineteenth-century Australian literature and art.

Nanette Mantle recounts how an image of bush bravery, born in the stockman’s saddle and recreated in the soldier-horseman of the Boer War and the First World War, inspired national sentiment, stirring verse and vibrant works of art. Horse and
Rider in Australian Legend captures the unique and enduring appeal of the horse, and its rider, to Australians of all eras.

About the Author

Nanette Mantle lived and farmed for many years in country Victoria, raising calves, pigs and sheep, but her life-long interest was always her horses. She drew on this experience when she returned to university in the 1980s, embarking on a study of A. B. Paterson’s The Man From Snowy River and its subsequent reincarnations in film and commercial adaptations. Her interest blossomed into this broader study of the horse and rider in Australian legend.

Book Preview

978-0-522-85089-5