Dora Birtles (; 1904–1992), was an Australian novelist, short-story writer, poet and travel writer.

Life

Dora Toll was born in 1903 in

Wickham, New South Wales Wickham is an inner List of suburbs in Greater Newcastle, New South Wales, suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, located from Newcastle's central business district. History The Aboriginal people, in this ...

, a suburb of

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

, the sixth daughter of Albert Frederick Toll and Hannah (née Roberts).''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English'', eds Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 95. She was ahead of her time in studying at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

in a period when few women received a tertiary education. However, she was suspended in 1923 for a poem appearing in the literary magazine ''

Hermes Hermes (; ) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology considered the herald of the gods. He is also widely considered the protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves, merchants, and orators. He is able to move quic ...

'', which describes post-coital bliss. Her future husband, poet and journalist Bert Birtles, was expelled for a still more explicit poem in the same issue of ''Hermes'' describing their tryst on the roof of the university quadrangle. Dora Birtles returned to Sydney University to take a degree in Oriental history and a diploma of education, and then taught in

Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle, also commonly referred to as Greater Newcastle ( ; ), is a large Metropolitan area, metropolitan area and the second-most-populous such area of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the cities of City of Newcastle, Newcastle and Ci ...

for a short time before travelling to Europe. Before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

she was a member of the International Women's League Against War and Fascism and reported for the '' Newcastle Sun''. Birtles was the subject of a finalist portrait for the

Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...

of 1947, by Dora Toovey. Dora Birtles died in

Cobar Cobar is a town in Outback New South Wales, Australia, whose economy is based mainly upon base metals and gold mining. The town is by road northwest of the state capital, Sydney. It is at the crossroads of the Kidman Way and Barrier Highwa ...

, New South Wales, on 27 January 1992 aged 88.

Works

Birtles' first novel, ''Pioneer Shack'' was for children. It had been written in the 1930s but did not appear until 1947, after the publication of a novel for adults, ''The Overlanders'' (1946), which was based on the 1946 film of the same name for which she had been a researcher. Birtles wrote an account of a sea voyage from Newcastle to

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, ''North-West by North'' (1935) which became one of her most popular works. She also wrote another children's novel, ''Bonza the Bull'' (1949). Her work has been the subject of

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

literary criticism.Cooper, J. E. (1987). Shaping meaning: Women's diaries, journals, and letters—The old and the new. In Women's studies international forum (Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 95-99). Pergamon.

Bibliography

*''North-West by North'' (1935) *''The Overlanders'' (1946) *''Australia in Colour'' (1947) *''Bonza the Bull'' (1949)

Works on Dora Birtles

*Moore, Deirdre (1996) ''Survivors of Beauty: memoirs of Dora and Bert Birtles'' (Croydon, NSW : Book Collectors' Society of Australia). *Birtles, Bert (1938) ''Exiles in the Aegean'' (London: Victor Gollancz). Experiences in pre-war Greece.

References

External links

Australian Dictionary of Biography entry."Newcastle After Six Years: Dora Birtles Returns", The Newcastle Sun, 15th of August 1938, p.7
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birtles, Dora 1900s births 1992 deaths Australian women journalists Australian women novelists Australian children's writers 20th-century Australian novelists Australian women children's writers 20th-century Australian women writers