Dorothea Mackellar

Who is Dorothea Mackellar?

Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar was born in 1885 in Point Piper, Sydney, into a prominent and well-educated family. A poet and novelist, she is best known for her patriotic poem "My Country", written in her early twenties while homesick in England and first published in 1908 under the title "Core of My Heart". Its second stanza, beginning "I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains", became one of the most quoted passages in Australian poetry and a lasting expression of national identity. Well-travelled and fluent in several languages, Mackellar published further poetry collections and co-authored novels. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1968 for her services to literature, shortly before her death that same year. The Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards continue in her name.

Sources: Dorothea Mackellar, 'My Country' (poem, first published 1908 as 'Core of My Heart') · Dorothea Mackellar, 'The Closed Door and Other Verses' (1911) · Australian Dictionary of Biography, entry 'Mackellar, Isobel Marion Dorothea'