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The Scent of Eucalyptus
Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780701139681
Barbara Hanrahan was both a writer and a visual artist, and this magical first novel is an autobiographical evocation of her childhood. A delicious blend of fantasy and realism, it is a powerful, lyrical story of a child's rites of passage through a world where the family home, its garden, and the three women who preside over it, area vital and compelling participants in the shaping of a child's rituals of discovery and awareness.
Barbara Hanrahan was both a writer and a visual artist, and this magical first novel is an autobiographical evocation of her childhood. A delicious blend of fantasy and realism, it is a powerful, lyrical story of a child's rites of passage through a world where the family home, its garden, and the three women who preside over it, area vital and compelling participants in the shaping of a child's rituals of discovery and awareness.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
About the author
Barbara Hanrahan
18 books6 followersHanrahan, Barbara Janice (1939 - 1991)
Archival/Heritage Resources Published Resources
Barbara Hanrahan was an artist, printmaker and writer. She was born in Adelaide in 1939 and lived there until her death in December 1991. Hanrahan spent three years at the South Australian School of Art before leaving for London in 1966 to continue her art studies. In England she taught at the Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, (1966-67) and Portsmouth College of Art (1967-70). From 1964 Hanrahan held a number of exhibitions principally in Adelaide and Sydney, but also in Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, London and Florence. Hanrahan's novels include The Scent of Eucalyptus (1973), The Peach Groves (1980), The Frangipani Gardens (1988) and Flawless Jade (1989).
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Career Highlights
URL: The home page for this entity is located at http://www.history.sa.gov.au/history/...
Barbara Hanrahan was educated at Thebarton Girls' Technical College before commencing a three year Art Teaching course at Adelaide Teachers' College. At the same time she completed art classes at the South Australian School of Art. Following the completion of her Diploma of Art Teaching, Hanrahan began teaching art in schools as well as enrolling for evening classes with the newly established Printmaking Department at the South Australian School of Art. In 1961 she was appointed assistant lecturer in Art at Western Teachers' College, Adelaide. In the same year she participated in a four-artist exhibition at the Hahndorf Gallery, and was awarded the Cornell Prize for Painting. She taught at the South Australian School of Art from 1963-66.
Hanrahan left for London in 1966 to continue her art studies. She taught at the Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, (1966-67) and Portsmouth College of Art (1967-70). In the early 1980s Hanrahan, with her partner Jo Steele, returned to live in Adelaide, where she established her own studio. Hanrahan's writing career began in 1973 with the publication of her first, largely autobiographical, novel The Scent of Eucalyptus. Other titles soon followed and her last novel, Good night, Mr Moon, was published posthumously in 1992.
During her life Hanrahan held a number of exhibitions nationally and internationally. Her works are held by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, and many regional galleries.
Sources used to compile this entry: refereces
Archival/Heritage Resources Published Resources
Barbara Hanrahan was an artist, printmaker and writer. She was born in Adelaide in 1939 and lived there until her death in December 1991. Hanrahan spent three years at the South Australian School of Art before leaving for London in 1966 to continue her art studies. In England she taught at the Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, (1966-67) and Portsmouth College of Art (1967-70). From 1964 Hanrahan held a number of exhibitions principally in Adelaide and Sydney, but also in Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, London and Florence. Hanrahan's novels include The Scent of Eucalyptus (1973), The Peach Groves (1980), The Frangipani Gardens (1988) and Flawless Jade (1989).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Career Highlights
URL: The home page for this entity is located at http://www.history.sa.gov.au/history/...
Barbara Hanrahan was educated at Thebarton Girls' Technical College before commencing a three year Art Teaching course at Adelaide Teachers' College. At the same time she completed art classes at the South Australian School of Art. Following the completion of her Diploma of Art Teaching, Hanrahan began teaching art in schools as well as enrolling for evening classes with the newly established Printmaking Department at the South Australian School of Art. In 1961 she was appointed assistant lecturer in Art at Western Teachers' College, Adelaide. In the same year she participated in a four-artist exhibition at the Hahndorf Gallery, and was awarded the Cornell Prize for Painting. She taught at the South Australian School of Art from 1963-66.
Hanrahan left for London in 1966 to continue her art studies. She taught at the Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, (1966-67) and Portsmouth College of Art (1967-70). In the early 1980s Hanrahan, with her partner Jo Steele, returned to live in Adelaide, where she established her own studio. Hanrahan's writing career began in 1973 with the publication of her first, largely autobiographical, novel The Scent of Eucalyptus. Other titles soon followed and her last novel, Good night, Mr Moon, was published posthumously in 1992.
During her life Hanrahan held a number of exhibitions nationally and internationally. Her works are held by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, and many regional galleries.
Sources used to compile this entry: refereces
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 25, 2016
What a delicious surprise this book was. I'd never heard of it, knew nothing about it, but my mum left it behind after visiting some time last year and, at a loose end last week, I picked it up and started reading it. Hanrahan is a genius at evoking physical memories. Though her story takes place 30 years before I was born, so many of the details of her childhood and mine are vividly similar, and she called up sensations I'd completely forgotten I'd ever had. Poetic and fragmented and intensely sensory, and just damn good.
January 21, 2018
It took me a while to get into this - the chapters are fragments of memories and visceral physical experiences of childhood and there's no real plot to grab onto. Once I let myself just sink into it, I was carried away - beautiful and dreamy, it captures something real about childhood and then bursts briefly into a surprising anger about the constraints of suburban life in Australia.
December 5, 2023
This was an odd read for me. Its writing style is very zany, creative. It actually reminded me of Thea Astley a little except i enjoyed Thea Astley where this made me feel more uncomfortable. Some of the writing brings to mind unsettling imagery or just feels wrong for some reason. I also found the over-sexualisation a tad disturbing given this is meant to be written from the perspective of a child. I dont know why the author felt the need to describe each of the female family members naked bodies in such graphic and disturbing detail. It did get me thinking about how young some kids are exposed to sexualised ideas and how lucky i was that i was very much sheltered from all that but overall i found myself having to push through this and doubt I’d recommend it to someone even if i could appreciate the creativity of the writing at times.
June 24, 2018
Had there been more of a plot or storyline this would have been a five star book for me. As it is it's a most marvellous lyrical evocative string of memories and it is wonderful. Hanrahan is such a visual writer, detailed descriptions of place and the era,Adelaide in the late 1940's and 50's. My only disappointment was that there was no dramatic arc, it really was just a memoir, a beautifully written memoir but I was expecting a novel. That however is my fault, one shouldn't have expectations, this is a beautiful piece of Australian writing.
February 22, 2023
a profoundly attentive memoir -- but the attentiveness at points is a violent and disciplinary kind of attentiveness that makes fragments quite uncomfortable and difficult to look at. the snap moment that happens near the end is really so beautiful and importantly reveals the idyllic constructions of white suburbia and white girlhood to be profoundly unnatural and painfully performed.. the snap calls into question all of the beauty and comfort in the first 150-ish pages and makes space for a recognition that white settler constructions home are only possible through what hanrahan names a masquerade : 'i paid homage without question to a sovereign and a flag and a sunburned land that were not mine'
March 20, 2024
I remember purchasing what might have been a first edition copy of this from a pile of remaindered books in 1979. I had only the vaguest notion of what it might be like from the fly leaf on the dust cover, but I was somehow strangely attracted to it. Perhaps it was the Australian-ness of the title and the story.
I loved reading it. I loved Hanrahan's way of bringing you into her world and showing you the raw intimacies of things from her past via various invocations of memory.
I can't recall if I read this book before or after Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter but both books have remained in my head and heart for decades since.
Now, in my sixties, when one returns frequently to the memory box of one's past life, I feel the pull of both these books, urging me to read them again...
I loved reading it. I loved Hanrahan's way of bringing you into her world and showing you the raw intimacies of things from her past via various invocations of memory.
I can't recall if I read this book before or after Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter but both books have remained in my head and heart for decades since.
Now, in my sixties, when one returns frequently to the memory box of one's past life, I feel the pull of both these books, urging me to read them again...
June 2, 2021
Told from the perspective of a child, readers are granted to unfiltered and unforgiving view of the people around her. This could be funny but at times, I did find it a bit hurtful especially when it came to racial comment and also in describing her aunt with down-syndrome. I guess this could be a reflection of the time seeing that novel was set in 1940s, novel published in 1973, and if I read correctly, is of somewhat autobiographical in nature. There were some beautiful description of Australian nature but my favourite in the chapter with the dog though I could've done without that ending [of the chapter]. Maybe those who grew up around the same time and/or lived around that area of Adelaide would appreciate the reminiscent atmosphere better.
March 28, 2022
A SA road trip book. Memoir of a writer/visual artist of her early life in Adelaide. Powerful evocation of the senses, smell, sounds, sights of a small City in Oz. No compelling narrative, which made it harder to read when travelling. But a good read. And not dated at all.
January 10, 2024
Barbara Hanrahan was an Australian writer. Someone I never heard of. And then three days ago in a suburb of Adelaide, I walked into a second-hand bookstore, walked out with this tiny autobiographical novel and from the minute I started in on it was utterly surprised and delighted.
Transported to a long-ago childhood world in a few brief sentences, entranced by the unsettling imagery and inventiveness of the very young, captivated by the graphic detail and claustrophobic atmosphere the author creates and the sheer poetic magic that holds it all together.
It’s a little jewel.
Transported to a long-ago childhood world in a few brief sentences, entranced by the unsettling imagery and inventiveness of the very young, captivated by the graphic detail and claustrophobic atmosphere the author creates and the sheer poetic magic that holds it all together.
It’s a little jewel.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews