Word: swagman
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...SHIRALEE, by D'Arcy Niland (250 pp.; William Sloane; $3.50), takes its title from an old Australian word for the bundle of belongings swagmen carry as they tramp about the land. Macauley, at 35, was a proud and able swagman, i.e., itinerant sheep-station hand, who hated cities, where you always need "a penny for the slot and a key for the door." But he had a city wife until, on a visit home, he found her with another man. Breaking the bloke's jaw wasn't enough for Macauley; in a spiteful rage against his wife...
...from job to job on the back tracks of the bush, his churlishness toward his burden slowly changed to brusque tenderness. Macauley's growing-up is obviously meant to be the heart of the story, but the book's strength lies in its Cineramic picture of the swagman's life-taking a turn at shearing, cutting burrs, fencing or digging spuds. To Macauley this was the only life, for "you have a hundred roads to choose from and a hundred towns to put the finger on." Australian Novelist Niland, who has been a swagman himself, tells...