Dairy farm philosopher

J.P. McKinney's 'According to Noonan' stories and Ron Campbell's 'Australian Journal'

Authors

  • Roger Osborne University of Queensland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1017/qre.2017.38

Keywords:

Jack McKinney, dairy farmer, the 'Australian Journal', 'According to Noonan', stories

Abstract

While working as a dairy farmer in the Sunshine Coast hinterland during the 1920s, Jack McKinney began contributing short stories to the popular weekly, the Australian Journal. Drawing on his own experience and sense of humour, he developed these stories into a series, ‘According to Noonan’, which the Australian Journal published until 1939 and reprised in the 1950s. This article will examine these stories and consider them in relation to McKinney’s later life and writing.

Author Biography

  • Roger Osborne, University of Queensland

    Roger Osborne is the 2016 University of Queensland Fryer Library Fellow. Roger is a scholarly editor and book historian. For Cambridge University Press he has edited Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes (2013) and Nostromo (2018), and in 2017 Sydney University Press will publish his book (co-authored with David Carter), Australian Authors in the American Marketplace 1840s–1940s.

References

Australian School of Journalism c.1945. Australian writers and artists market, including New Zealand: A practical selling guide for the freelance. Melbourne: Australian School of Journalism and Art Training Institute.

Brisbane Courier 1928. ‘Kumbia: Progressive farming district’, 25 February, 20.

Cameron David 2005. ‘Closer settlement in Queensland: The rise and decline of the agrarian dream, 1860s–1960s’. In Graeme Davison and Marc Brodie (eds), Struggle country: The rural ideal in twentieth century Australia. Melbourne: Monash University Publishing, http://books.publishing.monash.edu/apps/bookworm/view/Struggle+Country%3A+The+Rural+Ideal+in+Twentieth+Century+Australia/140/xhtml/chapter06.html.

Campbell Ron n.d. ‘An editor regrets’. Typescript, Louise Campbell Collection, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.

—— 1949. The first ninety years: The printing house of Massina, Melbourne, 1859 to 1949. Melbourne: A.H. Massina.

—— 1954. ‘The Australian Journal Story Book’. Typescript, Louise Campbell Collection, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.

Fotheringham Richard 1995. In search of Steele Rudd: Author of the classic ‘Dad & Dave’ stories. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press.

Herbert Xavier 1938, Capricornia. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.

—— 1990. South of Capricornia: Short stories 1925–1934, ed. Russell McDougall. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

—— 2002. Xavier Herbert letters. eds. Laurie Hergenhan and Frances de Groen. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press.

McKinney Jack 2017. ‘Art and artifice’. Tom Collins and Company, https://tomcollinsandcompany.github.io/annotate.

McLaren John 2009. ‘“This is serious”: From the backblocks to the city’. In Fran De Groen and Peter Kirkpatrick (eds), Serious frolic: Essays on Australian humour. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, pp. 48–59.

Osborne Roger 2007. ‘Vance Palmer, short fiction and Australian magazine culture in the 1920s’. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature 6, 49–64.

Palmer Vance and Palmer Nettie. Papers. National Library of Australia. MS1174.

Sunday Mail 1936. ‘Fun on the farm’, 5 April, 6

Wright Judith 2006. With love and fury: Selected letters of Judith Wright, eds. Patricia Clarke and Meredith McKinney. Canberra: National Library of Australia.

Willey Keith 1984. You might as well laugh, mate: Australian humour in hard times. Melbourne: Macmillan.

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Published

2017-12-01

Issue

Vol. 24 No. 2 (2017)

Section

Literary Landscapes of the Sunshine Coast

How to Cite

Osborne, R. (2017). Dairy farm philosopher: J.P. McKinney’s ’According to Noonan’ stories and Ron Campbell’s ’Australian Journal’. Queensland Review, 24(2), 293-304. https://doi.org/10.1017/qre.2017.38