28 Australian historical novels

An Angel in Australia is a novel by Thomas Keneally, set in Australia during World War II.

Capricornia (1938) is the debut novel by Xavier Herbert.

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is a 1972 Booker Prize-nominated novel by Thomas Keneally, and a 1978 Australian film of the same name directed by Fred Schepisi. The novel is based on the life of bushranger Jimmy Governor, the subject of an earlier book by Frank Clune.

Conflict is a historical novel by Australian author E. V. Timms.

The Conversations at Curlow Creek is a historical novel written by the prominent Australian author David Malouf. It was first published in 1996 by the Random House publishing group.

The Cripple in Black is an Australian novel by E. V. Timms set in seventeenth century Italy and England.

Dark Palace is a novel by the Australian author Frank Moorhouse that won the 2001 Miles Franklin Literary Award.

Destiny in Sydney: An epic novel of convicts, Aborigines, and Chinese embroiled in the birth of Sydney, Australia is the first historical novel in a three-book series about Sydney, Australia, by American writer D. Manning Richards. It was published in 2012 and followed by the second serial book, Gift of Sydney, in 2014. Destiny in Sydney begins in 1787 in Scotland and ends in 1902, covering 126 years of Australian history. The family saga story follows three fictional families: Scots-Irish, Aboriginal, and Chinese, who interact with real-life historical figures to dramatize the major events and conflicts in Australian history. Richards writes “The history is largely accurate. .. based on recorded history. .. from well over two hundred sources.” The appendix lists ninety primary references and includes a discussion of “Fact or Fiction?” by chapter that tries to anticipate readers’ questions.

Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World is an historical novel by Mudrooroo Nyoongah, first published in 1983. A tragedy, it explores how Aboriginal Tasmanians' dealt with British colonisation during the nineteenth century. It has several characters based on real-life historical figures, including Truganini, George Augustus Robinson, and Governor George Arthur.

From the Wreck is a 2017 historical and science fiction novel by Australian writer Jane Rawson. It was first published as a paperback original in March 2017 in Australia by Transit Lounge Publishing. The book is based on the 1859 shipwreck of the Australian steamship, the SS Admella and is a fictionalised account of Rawson's great-great-grandfather George Hills, a survivor from the wreck, and his encounter with a shapeshifting alien.

Hitler's Daughter is a children's novel by Australian children's author Jackie French. It was first published in 1999, and is one of French's most critically acclaimed books.

A House is Built (1929) is the first novel of M. Barnard Eldershaw, the joint pseudonym of Marjorie Barnard and Flora Eldershaw. It was written as a result of their seeing an advertisement for The Bulletin prize. The novel won this prize in 1928, shared with Katharine Susannah Prichard's Coonardoo. It was originally serialised in The Bulletin under the title, The Quartermaster.

Maelstrom is an Australian novel by E. V. Timms. It is set in 17th century France in the period following the death of Cardinal Richelieu.

Mr Darwin's Shooter is a 1998 novel by Roger McDonald. It describes the life of Syms Covington, manservant to Charles Darwin during Darwin's voyage aboard HMS Beagle.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North (novel)

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is the sixth novel by Richard Flanagan and 2014 winner of the Man Booker Prize.

Out of Ireland is a 1999 novel by Christopher Koch which tells the story of Irish 'gentleman-convict' Robert Devereux and his transportation to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). Koch observed that Out of Ireland was an exploration of his "interest in the idea that the past resonates off the future." The novel is considered uniquely Tasmanian because of the way it deals with convict ancestry and emphasizes the island's geographic isolation.

People of the Book is a 2008 historical novel by Geraldine Brooks. The story focuses on imagined events surrounding the protagonist and real historical past of the still extant Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the oldest surviving Jewish illuminated texts.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is an Australian historical fiction novel by Joan Lindsay. Set in 1900, it is about a group of female students at an Australian girls' boarding school who vanish at Hanging Rock while on a Valentine's Day picnic, and the effects the disappearances have on the school and local community. The novel was first published in 1967 in Australia by Cheshire Publishing and was reprinted by Penguin in 1975. It is widely considered by critics to be one of the best Australian novels.

The Potato Factory is a 1995 fictionalised historical novel by Bryce Courtenay, which was made into a television miniseries in Australia in 2000. The book is the first in a three-part series, followed by Tommo & Hawk and Solomon's Song. The Potato Factory has been the subject of some controversy regarding its historical accuracy and its portrayal of Jewish characters.

The Power of One is a novel by Australian author Bryce Courtenay, first published in 1989. Set in South Africa during the 1930s and 1940s, it tells the story of an English boy who, through the course of the story, acquires the name of Peekay.

Catherine Elizabeth Grenville is an Australian author. She has published fifteen books, including fiction, non-fiction, biography, and books about the writing process. In 2001, she won the Orange Prize for The Idea of Perfection, and in 2006 she won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for The Secret River. The Secret River was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

The Secret Chord (2015) is a novel about King David by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks.

The Secret River, written by Kate Grenville in 2005, is a historical novel about an early 19th-century Englishman transported to Australia for theft. The story explores what might have happened when Europeans colonised land already inhabited by Aboriginal people. The book has been compared to Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and to Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang for its style and historical theme.

Somewhere Around the Corner is a children's novel written by Australian author Jackie French. It was her first historical novel, and chronicles the adventures of a homeless girl from 1994 who goes 'around the corner' to another time - the Great Depression.

That Deadman Dance is the third novel by Western Australian author Kim Scott. It was first published in 2010 by Picador (Australia) and by Bloomsbury in the UK, US and Canada in 2012. It won the 2011 Regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the 2011 Miles Franklin Literary Award, the 2011 ALS Gold Medal, the 2011 Kate Challis RAKA Award, the 2011 Victorian Prize for Literature, the 2011 Victorian Premier's Literary Award, Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction and the 2012 NSW Premier's Literary Award Christina Stead Prize and Book of the Year.

The Timeless Land (1941) is a work of historical fiction by Eleanor Dark (1901–1985). The novel The Timeless Land is the first of The Timeless Land trilogy of novels about European settlement and exploration of Australia.

The Touch is a historical novel by Colleen McCullough published in 2003. It is about the life of a Scotswoman, Elizabeth Drummond, who travels from her home in Kinross, Scotland to New South Wales in order to marry her wealthy cousin, Alexander Kinross. The story takes place over the latter half of the 19th century.

The Wells of Beersheba is a short romanticized account of the Battle of Beersheba, which took place on 31 October 1917 in Ottoman Palestine during the First World War between the attacking mounted infantry of Australia and New Zealand and the defending Ottoman garrison. It was written by the Australian author Frank Dalby Davison who was not present at the battle, but had been in the British cavalry during the war. Much of the book, which is more fictionalized reportage than novella, and in which no single character is drawn, reflects the codependency of horse and rider and the shock of battle.