56 Australian novels adapted into films

48 Shades of Brown is a young-adult novel by Australian author Nick Earls, published by Penguin Books in 1999. The novel was awarded Children's Book of the Year: Older Readers by the Children's Book Council of Australia in 2000. The novel has been adapted into a play and a film.

Bliss is the first novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. Published in 1981, the book won that year's Miles Franklin Award.

Blue Fin is a 1978 Australian family film directed by Carl Schultz and starring Hardy Krüger, Greg Rowe and Elspeth Ballantyne. It is based on an Australian novel written by Colin Thiele and published in 1969.

The Book Thief is a historical novel by Australian author Markus Zusak, and is his most popular work.

The Broken Shore (2005) is a Duncan Lawrie Dagger award-winning novel by Australian author Peter Temple.

The Brush-Off is a 1996 Australian, Ned Kelly Awards-winning crime thriller, written by Shane Maloney. It is the second novel in a series of crime thrillers following the character of Murray Whelan, as he investigates crimes in the Melbourne area in the course of trying to keep his job with the Australian Labor Party.

Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction (1998) is a novel by Luke Davies.

Carnosaur (1984) is a horror novel written by Australian author John Brosnan, under the pseudonym of Harry Adam Knight. A film adaptation was made in 1993 by Adam Simon.

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.

Deadly, Unna? is a 1998 work of teenage fiction and is Phillip Gwynne's debut novel. Set in a small coastal town in South Australia, it is a rites-of-passage story about the interracial friendship between Australian rules football teammates Gary "Blacky" Black, a white boy, and Nunga Dumby Red. The novel is written from Blacky's point of view and covers the period leading up to the local football grand final and the summer after.

The Devil's Advocate is a 1959 novel by Australian author Morris West. It forms part of West's "Vatican" sequence of novels, along with The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963), The Clowns of God (1981), and Lazarus (1990).

Dot and the Kangaroo is a children's book written by Ethel C. Pedley about a little girl named Dot who gets lost in the Australian outback and is eventually befriended by a kangaroo and several other marsupials. The book was adapted into a stage production in 1924, and a film in 1977.

The Dressmaker is a Gothic novel written by the Australian author Rosalie Ham, and is Ham's debut novel. It was first published by Duffy & Snellgrove on January 1, 2000. The story is set in a 1950s fictional Australian country town, Dungatar, and explores love, hate and haute couture.

For Love Alone (1944) is a novel by Australian writer Christina Stead.

The Getting of Wisdom is a novel by Australian novelist Henry Handel Richardson. It was first published in 1910, and has almost always been in print ever since.

Hating Alison Ashley is a 1984 Australian novel. Written by science fiction and children's author Robin Klein. Written as a preteen comedy, the book has a strong moral undercurrent about the pursuit of happiness and perfection, the pressures of growing up and the power of friendship. It portrays the agonies of school-girl rivalries, constant embarrassment by family, and painful and often brutally funny awkwardness and insecurity. One of Klein's most popular preteen novels, it has since become a standard English text for school students across Australia.

He Died with a Felafel in His Hand is a purportedly non-fiction autobiographical novel by Australian author John Birmingham about his experiences as a share housing tenant, first published in 1994 by The Yellow Press (ISBN 1-875989-21-8). The story consists of a collection of colourful anecdotes about living in share houses in Brisbane and other cities in Australia with variously dubious housemates. The title refers to a deceased heroin addict found in one such house. The book was subsequently adapted into the longest running stage play in Australian history and, in 2001, was made into a film by Richard Lowenstein, starring Noah Taylor, Emily Hamilton and Sophie Lee. A sequel, The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco, was published in 1998.

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is a 1952 novel by Charles Shaw. It tells the story of Marine Corporal Allison shipwrecked on an island in the Pacific during World War II. The only inhabitant is a nun, Sister Angela. It was made into a 1957 film of the same name by John Huston.

High Road to China is a 1977 novel by Australian author Jon Cleary.

The Hunter is the first novel by Australian writer and film director Julia Leigh, published in 1999. It follows the efforts of an anonymous agent as he attempts to track down the last Tasmanian tiger rumoured to exist in Tasmania.

The Husband's Secret is a novel by Liane Moriarty that was first published on 30 July 2013. The novel tells the story of three women, whose lives unexpectedly interconnect after one of them discovers a devastating secret.

In The Winter Dark is a 1988 novel by Australian author Tim Winton.

An Indecent Obsession is a 1981 novel by Australian author Colleen McCullough.

The Irishman (1960) is a Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by Australian author Elizabeth O'Conner.

The Light Between Oceans is a 2012 Australian historical fiction novel by M. L. Stedman, her debut novel, published by Random House Australia on 20 March 2012. A film adaptation of the same name starring Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender was released on 2 September 2016.

Looking for Alibrandi is the debut novel of Australian author Melina Marchetta, published in 1992. A film adaptation was made in 2000.

Mary Poppins is a series of eight children's books written by Australian-British writer P. L. Travers and published over the period 1934 to 1988. Mary Shepard was the illustrator throughout the series.

Monkey Grip is a 1977 novel by Australian writer Helen Garner, her first published book. It initially received a mixed critical reception, but has now become accepted as a classic of modern Australian literature. The novel deals with the life of single-mother Nora, as she narrates her increasingly tumultuous relationship with a flaky heroin addict, juxtaposed with her raising a daughter while living in share houses in Melbourne during the late 1970s. A film based on the novel, also titled Monkey Grip, was released in 1982. In the 1990s, when critics identified the Australian literary genre of grunge lit, the book was retrospectively categorized as one of the first examples of this genre.

The Mount Marunga Mystery is a murder mystery first published in 1919 by Australian author Harrison Owen about the mysterious death of a fraudulent businessman in a rural Victorian township's five-star hotel. In June 2008, the novel was re-issued by Kessinger Publishing.

My Brilliant Career is a 1901 novel written by Miles Franklin. It is the first of many novels by Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (1879–1954), one of the major Australian writers of her time. It was written while she was still a teenager, as a romance to amuse her friends. Franklin submitted the manuscript to Henry Lawson who contributed a preface and took it to his own publishers in Edinburgh. The popularity of the novel in Australia and the perceived closeness of many of the characters to her own family and circumstances as small farmers in New South Wales near Goulburn caused Franklin a great deal of distress and led her to withdrawing the novel from publication until after her death.

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is a mystery fiction novel by Australian writer Fergus Hume. The book was first published in Australia in 1886. Set in Melbourne, the story focuses on the investigation of a homicide involving a body discovered in a hansom cab, as well as an exploration into the social class divide in the city. The book was successful in Australia, selling 100,000 copies in the first two print runs. It was then published in Britain and the United States, and went on to sell over half a million copies worldwide, outselling the first of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels, A Study in Scarlet (1887).

Oscar and Lucinda is a novel by Australian author Peter Carey which won the 1988 Booker Prize and the 1989 Miles Franklin Award. It was shortlisted for The Best of the Booker.

Our Father Who Art in the Tree is a 2002 debut novel by Australian writer Judy Pascoe. It is written from the perspective of 10-year-old Simone who believes her late father is living in the tree in her backyard.

Our Sunshine is a 1991 novel about Ned Kelly by Australian writer Robert Drewe.

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 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.

Schindler's Ark is a Booker Prize-winning historical fiction novel published in 1982 by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. The United States edition of the book was titled Schindler's List; it was later reissued in Commonwealth countries under that name as well. The novel was also awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction in 1983.

Seven Little Australians is a classic Australian children's literature novel by Ethel Turner, published in 1894. Set mainly in Sydney in the 1880s, it relates the adventures of the seven mischievous Woolcot children, their stern army father Captain Woolcot, and faithful young stepmother Esther.

The Shiralee is the debut full-length novel by D'Arcy Niland published in 1955. It was adapted into a movie in 1957 and a mini series in 1987.

The Shoes of the Fisherman is a novel by the Australian writer Morris West first published in 1963.

The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke is a verse novel by Australian novelist and poet C. J. Dennis. Portions of the work appeared in The Bulletin between 1909 and 1915, the year that Dennis completed the verse novel and had it published by Angus & Robertson. Written in the rough and comical Australian slang that was his signature style, the work became immensely popular in Australia, selling over 60,000 copies in nine editions within the first year of publication. Though its popularity peaked during World War I and the interwar period, it remains a classic of Australian literature and the best-selling book of poetry ever produced in the country.

The Sound of One Hand Clapping is a 1997 novel by Australian author Richard Flanagan. The title is adapted from the famous Zen kōan of Hakuin Ekaku. The Sound of One Hand Clapping was Flanagan's second novel.

Stiff is a 1994 Australian crime thriller novel, written by Shane Maloney. It is the first novel in a series of crime thrillers following the character of Murray Whelan, as he investigates crimes in the Melbourne area in the course of trying to keep his job with the Australian Labor Party.

Storm Boy is a 1964 Australian children's book by Colin Thiele about a boy and his pelican. The book concentrates on the relationships he has with his father Hide-Away Tom, the pelican, and an outcast Australian Aboriginal man called Fingerbone.

Sun on the Stubble is a novel by Colin Thiele, published in 1961. It tells the story of a German immigrant family living in rural South Australia during the 1930s. Colin Thiele was a South Australian educator and school principal.

The Sundowners is a 1952 novel by Australian writer Jon Cleary.

Syrup is a novel written by Max Barry under the pseudonym Maxx Barry, which satirizes consumerism and marketing techniques. It is Barry's debut novel, published in 1999, and adapted into the 2013 film Syrup.

Three Dollars is a 1998 novel by Australian writer Elliot Perlman. It is his first published novel. A movie of the same name based on the novel was released in 2005.

Tim is a novel by Australian writer Colleen McCullough, published by Harper and Row in 1974.

Tomorrow, When the War Began is the first book in the Tomorrow series by John Marsden. It was published in 1993, and is a young adult invasion novel, detailing a high-intensity invasion and occupation of Australia by a foreign power. The novel is told in first person perspective by the main character, a teenage girl named Ellie Linton, who is part of a small band of teenagers waging a guerrilla war on the enemy garrison in their fictional home town of Wirrawee.

True History of the Kelly Gang is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey, based loosely on the history of the Kelly Gang. It was first published in Brisbane by the University of Queensland Press in 2000. It won the 2001 Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize in the same year. Despite its title, the book is fiction and a variation on the Ned Kelly story.

Wake in Fright (1961) is the debut novel by Australian author Kenneth Cook.

The Well is a Miles Franklin Award-winning 1986 novel by Australian-English author Elizabeth Jolley. It tells the story of two women, Hester and her young ward Katherine, and their relationship with one another. Hester, who has lived alone on a farm with her father for many years, is possessive of the much younger Katherine. The relationship between the two women becomes strained after an incident where Katherine hits a mysterious creature with the roo bar on their four-wheel drive. It is left unclear whether the creature is an animal or an intruder who has stolen a large sum of money from the house. When Katherine begins to hear voices from the well and becomes racked with guilt, Hester goes to extreme measures to maintain her influence over her young ward.

The Women in Black (1993) is a novel by Australian author Madeleine St John. It is her first novel, and is the only one she set in Australia.

The Year of Living Dangerously is a 1978 novel by Christopher Koch in which a male Australian journalist, a female British diplomat, and a Chinese-Australian male dwarf interact in Indonesia in the summer and autumn of 1965. Set primarily in the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta, it also describes a partly fictionalized version of the events leading up to the coup attempt by the Communist Party of Indonesia on September 30, 1965.

The Year of the Angry Rabbit is a science fiction novel by Australian author Russell Braddon, in which giant mutant rabbits run amok in Australia while the Prime Minister uses a new superweapon to dominate the planet.