The small number of authors who decided to create an 'Australian fairyland' before Ernst wrote her book were well received by reviewers who measured the fairytales against their European counterparts and found them
suitable for children.
One reviewer even suggested that Australia offered a better environment for European fairies who had migrated for a better life. ‘It may be mentioned that it has transpired that the fairies were so much disturbed, during the last 50 years, by iron railways and ploughing in the Old Country that they left it for Australia, and it is told in the most interesting and simple language how much good they did in this country.’
Connecting the introduction of fairy folk into Australia as almost as unavoidable as was the rabbit and the sparrow but with pleasant consequences, a reviewer explains, ‘Though injudicious acclimatisation, as of the rabbit and of the sparrow, has its dangers, the introduction of the elves and gnomes of old-world legend into Australia can have none. Our lonely bush, ferny valleys, and wonderful "secret places of the hills" abound in spots befitting the fancy of the always fanciful "little people...Their Australian setting becomes them excellently, and in all respects…’
One reviewer even suggested that Australia offered a better environment for European fairies who had migrated for a better life. ‘It may be mentioned that it has transpired that the fairies were so much disturbed, during the last 50 years, by iron railways and ploughing in the Old Country that they left it for Australia, and it is told in the most interesting and simple language how much good they did in this country.’
Connecting the introduction of fairy folk into Australia as almost as unavoidable as was the rabbit and the sparrow but with pleasant consequences, a reviewer explains, ‘Though injudicious acclimatisation, as of the rabbit and of the sparrow, has its dangers, the introduction of the elves and gnomes of old-world legend into Australia can have none. Our lonely bush, ferny valleys, and wonderful "secret places of the hills" abound in spots befitting the fancy of the always fanciful "little people...Their Australian setting becomes them excellently, and in all respects…’
Atha Westbury author of Australian Fairytales(1897) was acclaimed as ‘the
author who undertakes the task of trying to displace the Brothers Grimm and
Hans Anderson in the affections of the youth of Australia’. Another who reviewed Rev. Charles Marson’s Faery stories remarked that, 'All the
stories have a distinct Australian flavor, and the little people who inhabit
our hills and plains are fully as interesting as their brothers and sisters of
the old world, while their influence for good or ill is equally strong' while Miss J. M. Whitfeld’s stories were compared with those of the Grimms and her tales ‘
like Grimm's well known tales, a modern, crystallised version of ancient folk-lore…
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of its birthplace…cleverly characterised in
(the) essentially Australian features.’ Yes, I have begun chapter four.
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