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

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For aye the Bird of Fantasy
Sang magic songs to him;
And deep and deeper still rode he
Into the forest dim.
Recalling his friend’s personality, Brady fondly envisioned him – “his face, his figure,
his gestures, his mannerisms, his inscrutable stoicism and unruffled cheerfulness” –
and considered himself the richer for having known him.
There is no doubt that Brady was extremely fortunate in having had such intimate
contacts with these three literary figures, especially at such a formative stage in
Australia’s cultural development and her progress as a separate nation. No doubt the
common ideas possessed by the four of them gained mutual support from association
and discussion; but as well, companionship and encouragement often helped to relieve
their literary lot – often an uneasy one. Brady explained their association to Chisholm
in these words:
The Quartette, Lawson, Daley, Quinn and Brady, stuck pretty close together I
assure you. They had a lot in common – a love for Australia and the love of
verse, for one thing. A sense of companionship and mutual ideas made the
friendship more than ordinary. We did what was in us to do and took pleasure
in doing it. Nobody grudged his praise for the other fellow’s effort, when it
rose to a high level. ‘That’s a damn good thing’ coming from one of the group
to the others – and the others never failed to agree – brought as much kick to
the lad whose work merited the decision as a bottle of Coolatta claret. 1
It was true, as Brady himself admitted, that they formed a kind of mutual admiration
society, but all had relationships outside the quartette and the help each gained was on
the whole worthwhile.
Many other writers and artists visited Brady at Mallacoota to stay in a camp alongside
Brady’s own in the early days, or at Mallacoota House or the hotel later on. One such
visitor was Katharine Susannah Prichard, who wrote about her experiences in an
article, the manuscript of which she lent to the writer shortly before her death. Both
transport and accommodation were primitive when she made her journey, as her story
of it makes plain:
Brady invited me to visit them, and arranged for Jack McAllister, who drove
the coach between Orbost and Genoa, to meet me at the end of the railway.
Brady himself was detained in the city by some business, so I had an
unforgettable drive through the forests of South Gippsland – though the coach
consisted of only a buggy and a pair of horses, and McAllister thought a
young woman was quite mad to be setting out on a three days drive, on rough
mountain roads, in drizzling rain, during winter. However, we soon warmed
to each other and were yarning happily about everything under the sun. He
was the son of pioneers and had interesting gossip about them in the early
days, and of the bush folk. There were stoppings for the night at isolated
shacks where the horses were changed; and then in the early morning we
would rattle on again…
1 Brady to A. Chisholm, 16.6.1949, in possession of A. Chisholm.