Character guide

Mitchell

major

Also known as Jack Mitchell, Jack Drew, Jacky, Enter Mitchell

Mitchell tramps the long, dry stretches of the outback with the narrator, rolling out his swag on the sand and covering his face with calico against the moonlight. He can curse a grieving mother like a larrikin one moment, then lay a work-roughened hand on a dead boy's forehead and mutter 'Poor little cove!' the next. His blend of hard-bitten humour and buried compassion shapes the collection's vision of mateship and hardship.

Steelman

major

Also known as The Great Steelman, Steelman Steelman

Steelman divides the world into 'spielers and mugs,' and he is emphatically the former, using greasepaint, borrowed rags, and a carefully rehearsed Aberdeen backstory to transform Smith into a convincing death's-door beggar. He is by turns cruelly exacting and theatrically tender, dressing Smith down for his stupidity even as he engineers every detail of the performance. His elaborate deceptions expose the thin line between bush hospitality and the predatory ingenuity of those who live by their wits.

The Narrator

major

Also known as Unknown, me, I, myself

Whether he is a swagman sharing a campfire or a journalist taking notes, the narrator is the collection's steady eye and ear, drawing out stories from bullock-drivers, shearers, and shanty-keepers. He listens with wry patience as Billy Nowlett explains how a man can be mistaken for dead, and he passes along the ghost stories and mistaken identities of the back country without judgement. His presence gives the scattered sketches their coherence and their quiet, observing humanity.

Tom Hopkins

supporting

Also known as Long Tom Hopkins, Long Tom, Tom

Tom Hopkins moves through the world of the shearing shed with a lumbering, good-natured bewilderment, caught up in the pranks and grumblings of the men around him. He is the sort of figure who watches a cook's poodle get shorn for a lark and then listens to the cook's furious teatime tirade with the same slow incomprehension. His presence anchors the comic set-pieces, showing how bush humour can be both bonding ritual and casual cruelty.

The Old Man

supporting

Also known as old man, The old man

The Old Man surfaces in the narrator's yarns as the kind of grizzled identity who has seen it all and will not be told otherwise, the sort of 'self-opinionated and obstinate' character who insists Brummy Usen is dead and buried even when Brummy stands before him. He represents the deep-rooted, sometimes wilfully blind traditionalism of the bush, a living archive of stories that may or may not be true. His presence lends the collection its sense of a world shaped by rumour, memory, and the stubborn refusal to let go of a settled conviction.

Bogan Bill

supporting

Also known as Bill, old Bill, Billy Nowlett, the Billy, Bogan

Billy Nowlett is the bullocky who has been 'killed before' and takes the news of his own death with a shrug, more surprised about the five quid than the obituary. A shanty-keeper up Coonamble way could never tell him apart from another bullock-driver, landing Billy with bills for grog he never drank and inspiring a wish that one of them were dead. His cheerful endurance of confusion and misfortune embodies the bush's fatalistic humour and its acceptance of life's absurdities.

John Smith

supporting

Also known as Smith, Poor old Smith, Jacky, the John Smith

Smith is the loyal, credulous foil to Steelman, a man whose good nature makes him easy prey for every confidence trick his partner can invent. When Steelman dresses him as a dying consumptive to beg from a Scottish household, Smith submits with helpless bewilderment, asking only what he has done wrong. His willingness to be humiliated for a mate's sake gives the partnership its strange, lopsided tenderness, and makes the reader wince at every fresh manipulation.

Arvie Aspinall

supporting

Also known as Arvie, little Arvie, Poor little Arvie, Billy Anderson, Arvie Bill Anderson

Arvie is a child labourer in Jones's Alley, dragging himself through each day while his mother frets over rent and his failing health. Even in sleep he mutters about the alarm going off, so conditioned is he to the grind that wakes him before dawn. His quiet death on the sofa, while a wealthy household nearby weeps over a recitation about a crossing sweeper, gives the collection its sharpest image of a life used up before it began.

Malachi Duggan

supporting

Also known as old Malachi Duggan, Malachi

Malachi is a shabby, sandy-haired bushman who has never left his native scrub except for one dazed visit to Sydney, which he can only describe as 'a caution.' He hates high-flown language and the opposite sex with equal passion, and the boys exploit both by writing him threatening letters in a feminine hand. His patient refrain, 'Now, none of your pranktical jokes,' marks him as the collection's gentlest victim, a man whose credulity the reader both laughs at and pities.

Macquarie

supporting

Also known as Macquarie⁠

Macquarie never appears in the bar of Stiffner's shanty, yet his reputation drives the men there to insults and near-blows, with Barcoo calling him a cheat and a blackguard. Old Awful Example, a sodden wreck who once partnered Macquarie, staggers up to defend him with the one point he can muster: Macquarie never talked about a man behind his back. The standoff that follows, and the quiet voice that finally breaks it, turns a missing man into the moral centre of the yarn.

Baldy Thompson

supporting

Also known as old Baldy Thompson, Baldy, Thompson, Rough

Baldy is a rough, squarish man with a curly auburn wig and a lifelong grudge against banks, government, and the country itself, though the men swear by him as old Baldy the squatter. He will keep a shearer on the payroll all day just to argue unionism and politics, and the guileless traveller who feigns interest in his opinions leaves with a full nosebag. His shed is a legendary tucker track, and his grumbling hospitality makes him one of Lawson's most affectionately drawn bush characters.

Stiffner

supporting

Also known as This Stiffner

Stiffner runs a bush pub where the drink flows and the swags of careless travellers have a way of vanishing, and he does not take kindly to being bested. When two travellers make off with their belongings, he and his equally formidable wife give chase, she armed with a shovel and he making for the stables. His grudge against anyone who has 'had' him gives the yarn its comic menace, and his shanty serves as the collection's recurring stage for bush trickery and rough justice.

Tom Brook

supporting

Also known as Brook, Tom

Tom Brook is a selector and shearer whose hard-won farm turns out to sit on barren ridges, setting him against a squatter who seizes the land and sues him for trespass. His stubborn optimism—he keeps shifting fences and dreaming of fruit trees—collides with a system rigged against small men, and the strain eventually lands him in Parramatta asylum. His wry endurance and the friendship he strikes there with his old enemy make him the human face of the bush's brutal arithmetic.

The Stranger

minor

Also known as stranger, The stranger

An enigmatic figure who appears in various campfire yarns.

Mrs. Aspinall

minor

Also known as Mrs. Aspinall

The hard-working mother of Arvie Aspinall.

Tom Mason

minor

Also known as Mason, Tommy, Presently Tommy

A young boy in a bush school story.

Jim Brown

minor

Also known as Brown, poor Brown, Jim

A shearer and mate, often in trouble.

Brummy Usen

minor

Also known as Brummy, This Brummy, the real Brummy

A boastful, comic bushman with a thick accent.

Jim Smith

minor

Also known as James Smith, Jim, Smith

A shearer and occasional mate of the narrator.

Tom Marshall

minor

Also known as Tommy, Tom

A shearer known for his singing voice.

Jimmy Nowlett

minor

Also known as Jim, old Jimmy Nowlett, James, old Jim

A bullock-driver and bush character.

Mother Brock

minor

Also known as Mother, Brock

An old bush woman who keeps a shanty.

Queen Elizabeth

minor

Also known as Lizzie

A barmaid or barmaid-like figure in a pub.

Dave

minor

A shearer and mate of the narrator.

Mary

minor

Also known as Poor Mary, Black Mary

An Aboriginal woman or a servant in a story.

Adelaide Adolphus

minor

Also known as Corney George, Corney, Geordie

A miner mentioned in a yarn about lost mates.

Mr. James Mitchell

minor

Also known as Mitchell

A station owner or boss.

Barcoo

minor

A dog or a bushman from the Barcoo region.

Servant Girl

minor

Also known as a very good - looking servant girl waitin ’ on ’em

A pretty servant in a boarding house story.

The Doctor

minor

Also known as doctor, The doctor

A bush doctor who appears in several stories.

Little Isley Mason

minor

Also known as Isley

A young boy in a bush school story.

Curry

minor

Also known as Poor old Curry

A shearer or bush worker.

Joe Swallow

minor

Also known as Joe, young Joe Swallow

A young shearer or bushman.

Pat Martin

minor

Also known as Pat, Paddy Somebody, Paddy

An Irish bushman and mate.

Father

minor

A father figure in a bush story.

Isley

minor

Also known as Isley!, Presently Isley

A young boy in a bush school story.

Scotty

minor

Also known as old Scotty, young Scotty

A Scottish bushman.

Selector

minor

A generic selector character.

James Tyson

minor

Also known as Tyson, Jim, James John Tyson

A wealthy pastoralist mentioned in a story.

Missus

minor

A generic wife or landlady.

The Exception

minor

A character in a philosophical yarn.

Five Bob

minor

Also known as Bob, Bobbie, nine bob

A dog owned by a bushman, featured in a story.

Alligator

minor

A dog belonging to a drover's wife.

Bogg

minor

Also known as Presently Bogg

A comic selector and neighbor.

Chinny

minor

A bush character with a distinctive chin.

Sally Thompson

minor

Also known as Sally, Thompson

A woman in a bush courtship story.

Lally Thompson

minor

Also known as Thompson

A young woman in a bush story.

Sunlight

minor

Also known as Sunlight ”

A racehorse or a dog mentioned in a yarn.

Jacob

minor

An old bushman or station hand.

Old Rats

minor

Also known as Rats

A bush character with a nickname.

His Master

minor

Also known as master, his master

A station owner or employer in a dog story.

Ben Hake

minor

Also known as Hake, Old Ben Hake, young Hake, Benjamin

A bushman and father of a family.

The Man Who Forgot

minor

A man who loses his memory and wanders the bush.

Tom Moonlight

minor

Also known as Tom

A shearer or bush character.

The Oracle

minor

Also known as Oracle

A know-it-all bush character.

The Doctors

minor

Also known as doctors, The doctors

A group of doctors in a story.

Jones

minor

A publican or character in a pub story.

The Master

minor

Also known as master, The master

A station owner or employer.

Mr. Stoneleigh

minor

A station owner or gentleman.

Box

minor

A dog or a bushman.

Steely

minor

A bush character, possibly a shearer.

Bricky

minor

Also known as Bricky ”

A bushman with a nickname.

The Moa

minor

A racehorse or a dog.

Milky

minor

A dog or a bushman.

Old Awful Example

minor

Also known as Awful Example, Awful

A cautionary tale character.

Mrs. Brown

minor

Also known as Brown

A woman in a bush story.

Mason's

minor

Also known as Mason’s

A family or place name.

Rice

minor

A bush character.

Isaacs

minor

A Jewish bushman or storekeeper.

Mrs. A.

minor

Also known as Poor Mrs. A.

A woman in a boarding house story.

Tally

minor

A dog or a bushman.

Janet Wild

minor

A woman in a bush story.

Mr. B.

minor

Also known as Poor old Mr. B., So poor old Mr. B.

A comic character in a boarding house.

Garn

minor

A bushman's exclamation or nickname.

Mrs. Next-door

minor

A neighbor in a domestic story.

Auld Lang Syne

minor

A character or a pub name.