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

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Almost all of these elements are discernible in varying degree in Brady’s personality
and in his approach to his task as critic of the political scene. Certainly there is little
idealism in his discussions of politicians and their efforts, although there were
considerable achievements being made, such as Federation, industrial progress and
the female franchise which he himself had espoused on many occasions as an
embodiment of the egalitarian principles in which he so firmly believed.
In the written expression of his political views, Brady often appealed to the
principles of his cause and to the patriotism which he saw particularly inherent in the
members of a young nation at a time when real nationalism was just making its
presence felt and a sense of national identity was emerging, partly as a result of
Australia’s increasing involvement in world affairs and partly as a products of a
national literature following upon Lawson, the bush balladists and the popular weeks
production of The Bulletin. While it is a common view that Australian nationhood
dates from the time when its soldiers first bore arms overseas, one must agree with
Professor Greenwood when he writes of the period 1901-1914:
Australia had become a nation before its soldiers set foot on the beaches of
Gallipoli ever if full awareness waited on the future. A developing national
consciousness, seeking distinct forms of self-expression, and a social
regenerative movement, utopian in impulse, inventive in means, equalitarian
in conviction, gave shape and individuality to the period. 1
When the Government was stirring up patriotism by sponsoring a retrospective
examination of the beginnings of land settlement as part of the Centenary
celebrations, The Bulletin, in its centenary issue, argued that Australian history began
not at Sydney Cove with Phillip but at Eureka with Lalor. Brady agreed with this,
writing “The Flag of the South” as a commemoration of the Eureka Stockade. So
popular did it become that it was set to music by a musician of the day, J.J. Bogle, and
published in sheet-music form and, complete with music, in Truth. 2 It was the
forerunner of quite a large number of his poems which were sung as ballads:
The flag of the South, when young Freedom has spread
Her fetterless wings o’er the homes we have made,
It shall burst from its folds where the ‘rebels’ lie dead
In their graves by the dust of Eureka Stockade.
So we march on, march on, like the heroes gone,
In the land where our children are growing;
Till its five stars shall gleam by the wild mountain stream
Where the winds of the wide West are blowing.
With his verses and prose writings about the sea, so obviously Australian in setting,
language and character, Brady added a new dimension to our national identity. The
concept of the Australian bush with its harshness, its mystery and its uniqueness of
spirit was observably Australian; but now Australians could link this aspect with the
sea and its ports which, as far as industry was concerned, demonstrated the
interdependence of these national aspects. Unless the products of the bush could be
sent to world markets their full benefit was never achieved. And the same ethos of
mateship, industry, hardship and even romance were discernible here as well as in the
bush; and as Australians, its workers were contributing to national prosperity along
with those who produced the golden fleece.
1 G. Greenwood (ed.) Australia: A Social and Political History (Sydney, 1955) pp. 253-4
2 31.1.1892