Edna Brady has collected a sellection of poems, prose and other pieces written by her father Edwin James Brady, Henry Lawson and others, written specifically about Mallacoota and the surrounding district.

Included are many historical photographs, drawings and illustrations by local artists.

A brief history of Mallacoota is outlined. Particulary the period when EJ Brady setup his writer's camp in early 1910 and communal farm in 1932.

Edwin James Brady was a writer, socialist and poet. His best known publication was "Australia Unlimited".

Henry Lawson visited EJ Brady's camp in 1910 and many other notable personalities visited, including Louis Esson, Arthur Streeton, John Curtin, Banjo Patterson & Kathrine Susannah Pritchard.


Photo courtesy of National Library

PART OF POEM: COASTS OF DREAM
From Bells & Hobbles: date unknown
E.J. Brady

My memory ship is sailing slow . .
A magic coast it seems,
Where I have idled to and fro,
And dreamed my idle dreams . .
Good, fighting, red fat schnapper strain
The dripping lines today
Where lately was the cow whale slain
And towed to Twofold Bay.

On Mallacoota pipes the swan,
And calls the mating teal,
And black finned mullet shoals dart on
Before the coming keel.

Come South’ard where the lobsters spawn
In green Cape Conran weed!
Come South and watch, on seas of Dawn,
The whale calf play and feed!

The Gippsland Lakes are deep and wide,
The Gippsland trees are tall’
And on the long, lone beach the tide
For ninety miles doth call.

Aye! surely as all flesh is grass,
The far lands fairer seem,
So roving hearts for e’er must pass
Adown the Coasts of Dream.

EJ Brady building his camp. Sketch by M. Howden.

Brady setup a camp in Mallacoota from the early 1900's.

CAPTAIN'S POINT (To a Fellow Bard Camping Out)
Henry Lawson, June 1910

For the sake of those few pleasant
Sunny weeks we lately spent,
Linking old times with the present,
There by ocean, tree and tent;
From the hard streets of a city,
Where the times seem out of joint,
I am sending you a ditty
For your camp on Captain's Point.

Where no jarring note may find you,
You can hunt and fish and dream,
With your forest wilds behind you
And the wealth of lake and stream;
And the glorious curve of beaches,
Like a panorama spread,
Of your grand front yard that reaches
From red Gabo to Ram's Head;

Where the fisher folk are botching
Nets that never were too strong,
And the silly shags sit watching,
Watching nothing all day long;
Free from Fortune's slings and arrows,
From all thoughts of rent or meal,
Where the islets, creeks and narrows
Teem with fish and swarm with teal.

Where no tree marked track seems lonely,
Where the best of tourists come,
And the gate is barred that only
Little cutters may get home.
Where your finest fancies now range,
And your songs ring dear and true,
And the steep and rugged Howe Range
Is a garden wall for you.

botching = patching

EJ Brady's son Hugh (Wingan).

Photo courtesy of Mallacoota Historical Society.

The Cool-safe at the camp. Tents were pitched under a tin roof.

Photo courtesy of National Library

Hugh Brady's T Model Ford outside Genoa Store, 1920's.

Photo courtesy of Mallacoota Historical Society.

EJ Brady at home in his study.

Photo courtesy of National Library

EJ Brady with his third wife, Florence Jane, Edna Brady aged 5 and Allan Quale.

EJ Brady married Florence in 1942 when he was aged 72 and she was 36.

He died at the age of 82, when Edna was six years old.

Photo courtesy of National Library