A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF EDWIN JAMES BRADY - Mallacoota ...

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As well as an insight into bush people, Brady has also a feeling for the country
landscape and atmosphere as perspicacious as Furphy’s of Rudd’s. It is not the
continually harsh and barren landscape of so much of Lawson’s work, but there is a
time and place where plenty is to be found, where a fulfilment and refreshment of the
soul and spirit result. Such a state is reached by Brady at the end of “On the Wallaby”
and the lyricism which it arouses in him cannot be contained. 1 The view of the bush
as a therapeutic and cathartic force is new to Brady and his appreciation of it rests on
his deepest philosophical beliefs. In spite of his agnosticism, here is a pantheistic and
even a religious Brady, certainly a sincere one, and if the passing years left a gloss of
materialism and atheism, this deep will of inner resource which allowed him to find
comfort in the natural creation never left him completely.
Ad in the previous serial, Brady uses “On the Walalby” to convey social comment.
Although a staunch unionist, he had several thrusts at unionism, especially at its overzealous
application (“It is the correct thing for every working man to get all he can out
of an employer, especially when he has him at a disadvantage”). Social snobbery is
deplored and ironically viewed against the background of the new egalitarianism.
Especially are the artificial graces of the “remittance man’ cause for amusement and
pity, and when the author attempts to imitate one, putting on a lofty attitude and
exaggerated speech, the rough farmer responds appropriately: “Well, I’m struck. If it
ain’t the most paralysin’ thing that ever stepped over the ranges.” Further point is
given to these elements of the social mores by contrast with Cumbo’s society. He
offers to return to the homestead and bring the object of the author’s affection with a
club, to which the lovelorn retorts that it might have done well in sandstone times but
“it won’t fit with these days of bloomer and women’s rights and lady barristers.” In
fact, a wide spectrum of human relationships is examined, especially when two girls
simultaneously are the objects of his affection.
Between the characteristic Brady understatement and the overstatement of the bush
there are many variations in narrative style. The goose captured because it has
wandered from its owner’s farm is “mercifully bled” before reaching the travellers’
cooking-pot; a patch of trousers torn out by a dog is “as big as a suburban allotment”;
a very obese lady had a “surcingle” strapped round her middle “for fear she would
breach in two at her narrowest part”; all these exemplify Brady’s keen observation
and dry wit in communication of the fact that so much of life is basically droll and
humorous and the telling of it cannot ignore the fact. Whether the two travellers are
in peril clambering down a cliff-face, stealing a sucking-pig or sleeping in a boilingdown
shed “breathing through their feet”, there is a vividness and an earthiness which
extracts the maximum interest from the account. In general, “On the Wallaby” is
more entertaining and better written then its predecessor although it must be
remembered that it was written for a general readership and in conditions which
permitted no revision, no lengthy consideration of apposite words but required
constant weekly production from a writer with other responsibilities and further, from
a writer who had to be his own editor. It deals mainly with unsophisticated characters
yet does not write down to its audience. Its purpose is to entertain and in good
measure this is what it does.
The next serial sets out to do the same – to entertain the reader, but it is markedly
different from “On the Wallaby”. “A Juvenile World Walker” sets out the adventures
of three young city boys as they trek through the Australian countryside living on
their wits.
1 17.6.1899