Such Is Life: Joseph Furphy

Usually published under the pseudonym 'Tom Collins'. Here the reader can meet the real Aussies of the 1880s - the bullockies and swaggies, the squatters and teamsters, the remittance men and the 'foreigners' who eked their existence from a harsh and begrudging land. Allegedly the diary of one 'Tom Collins' - a mythical figure to whom were attributed the tall tales and wild rumours of the outback - and based on Furphy's own experiences in the "adventurous and profane occupation" of a bullock-driver. This book has been described as a 'great slab of Australian earth, rather than a novel'.