Australians -- 'Peter 'Possum' (Richard Rowe) (1828-79): The Compliments of the Season -- Frederick Sinnett (1830-66): from The Fiction Fields of Australia -- Henry Kendall (1839-82): A Colonial Literary Club -- 'The Vagabond' (John Stanley James) (1843-96): A Brutal Football Match -- Marcus Clarke (1846-81): Adam Lindsay Gordon -- Louisa Lawson (1848-1920): The Australian Bush-Woman -- Philip Mennell (1851-1905): New Chums -- E.J. Banfield (1852-1923): The Art of Beachcombing -- Dame Mary Gilmore (1864-1962): The Bent Twig -- A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson (1864-1941): The Amateur Gardener -- H.E. Boote (1865-1949): War and the Devil -- A.G. Stephens (1865-1933): A Word for Australians -- Henry Lawson (1867-1922): If I Could Paint -- Sir Ernest Scott (1867-1939): The Flinders's Centenary -- Edward S. Sorenson (1869-1939): Christmas in the Bush -- Christopher Brennan (1870-1932): The University and Australian Literature -- Charles MacLaurin (1872-1925): Death -- Sir Walter Murdoch (1874-1970): Bad Language -- C.E.W. Bean (1879-1968): The Legacy -- Frederick Wood Jones (1879-1954): Of a Horse Muster -- Norman Lindsay (1879-1969): The Question of Ned Kelly's Perfume -- Nettie Palmer (1885-1964): On Surfing -- Vance Palmer (1885-1959): The Spirit of Prose -- Arthur Phillips (1900-85): The Cultural Cringe -- Lennie Lower (1903-47): Learning the Facts of Life -- Brian Penton (1904-51): It's Too Hard to be Free! -- Sidney J. Baker (1912-76): Language and Character -- Patrick White (1912-90): The Prodigal Son -- Manning Clark (1915-91): Rewriting Australian History -- James McAuley (1917-76): Poets Anonymous -- Alister Kershaw (1921-95): The Last Expatriate -- Charmian Clift (1923-69): Images in Aspic -- Frank Knopfelmacher (1923-95): The Threat to Academic Freedom -- Alan Davies (1924-87): Small Country Blues -- Vincent Buckley (1925-88): Intellectuals -- David Stove (1927-94): Cricket versus Republicanism -- Barry Oakley (1931- ): Meeting the Great -- David Malouf (1934- ): A First Place -- Chris Wallace-Crabbe (1934- ): Swaying in the Forties -- Pierre Ryckmans (1935- ): An Amateur Artist -- Les Murray (1938- ): The Trade in Images -- Germaine Greer (1939- ): Sex and Society -- Whose Rules? -- Clive James (1939- ): You Little Bobby-Dazzler -- Graham Little (1939- ): The Flag My Father Wore -- Gerald Murnane (1939- ): Some Books are to be Dropped into Wells, Others into Fishponds ... -- Helen Garner (1942- ): The Fate of The First Stone -- B.J. Coman (1944- ): A Short History of the Rabbit in Australia -- Robert Dessaix (1944- ): Nice Work If You Can Get It -- Kate Jennings (1948- ): Bad Manners -- Brent Crosswell (1950- ): Vinny Catoggio -- Giulia Giuffre (1951- ): Who Do You Think You Are? -- Robert Harris (1951-93): The Carriers Off of the Dead -- Kerryn Goldsworthy (1953- ): Martyr to Her Sex -- Greg Manning (1954- ): The Revolution That Never Was -- Archie Weller (1957- ): Portrayal of Aboriginal Men in Literature -- Adrian Martin (1959- ): TV Time Tunnel -- Michael McGirr (1961- ): At Home in Memory.

A historical anthology of Australian essays, by leading Australian writers.