7 - The Australian Crime Novel, 1830–1950

Summary

Crime novels are central to the literary traditions and social histories of Australia. Often dismissed as cheap entertainment, these works demonstrate how the settlers of a newly conquered continent took on the task of transforming a gaol into a nation. As colonisation spread, so too did crime writers, publishers and readers. Over time the crime fiction novel became an essential vehicle for communicating ideas of right and wrong as well as ideas of what it meant to be an Australian. In a vast array of crime-focused works, the central protagonist investigates a dreadful crime while readers are asked to work through issues of class, gender and race. As stories sorted out who was guilty and innocent, authors also reveal some of the tensions within a society that still holds fast to ideals based upon egalitarianism but allows deep fractures between different social groups. Indeed, as the country marched relentlessly forward in the pursuit of progress crime novelists easily capitalised upon colonial beginnings, the rise of the metropolis and a nostalgia for the bush. In this way, authors embraced crime fiction and proved the world’s most popular genre can be refashioned to offer novels that are specifically Australian.