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On the other hand, the incomplete sense of identity may be what gives Australian
literature its suppleness, as if the feeling that the Australian identity not being fixed or
complete gives writers a license to explore the world in search of themselves. It is not
surprising that Australian literary encounters with Asia would first produce ‘the exotic Asia
delighting the tourist, the infernal Asia torturing the jungle soldier, or the non-union Asia
threatening to destroy the democratic rights of the working man’ (Tiffin, 1984, 468), for they
are coming out of the European tradition, imbued with the prejudices, images and expectations
that come with those genres. What is interesting, however, is how Australian writers are
separating themselves from the strict ranks of European tradition, and creating a new branch
which reflects better the unique Australian experiences of and perspectives on Asia.
3.3. The Sense of Loss and ‘Otherness’
The first white Australians were mostly ‘transported’ there as convicted criminals,
representing elements of the worse and also the best—in the case of the militant union
organisers or Irish nationalist leaders, for example—of British society. Thomas Keneally’s
Bring Larks and Heroes gives a contemporary perspective of the origins of white Australia
with the story of Corporal Halloran and his convict-love, Anne. Halloran plans to stay in the
penal colony until Anne’s time is served, and then get them both back to England where they
expect to find a good life together, but they share the fate of most convicts in that they will
never leave the Antipodes again, and worse, that all that their admirable love and commitment
will get them is a bad death.
After the early settlement of the convict population came waves of others who chose to
come, but normally with every intention to return ‘home’ once they had made their fortune.
Henry Handle Richardson’s The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney presents two such characters.
As a young and conservative, rather impractical and romantic but honourable man, Richard
Mahoney let himself be swayed by the tales of fortune and wonder across the sea, and
embarked for what he expected to be a two- or three-year adventure. When he finally realises
that abandoning his less-than-promising but still not desperate life in England was a mistake,
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