Physical description

Hard cover book. Black Waterlily
Author: William Hatfield
Publisher: Angus & Robertson
Date: 1935
Further Information: Dark green plain cloth hardcover with lettering to front cover spine has red cloth repair to spine lettering in black pen. The spine has a Library label with an inscription.

Publication type

fiction

Inscriptions & markings

The label on the spine with the typed text PAT FIC HAT
Paste down front end paper has a sticker from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute and Free Library covered by a sticker from Corangamite Regional Library Service
Front loose end paper has a stamp from Corangamite Regional Library Service
Front loose end paper has a stamp from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute

Summary

Black Waterlily is an outback novel set in the Northern Territory. It is dedicated to ‘Dinkum’, a blue cattle-dog and the author’s sole companion on many tough outback tracks. Contemporary reviewers grouped it with other 1935 books on northern Australia. Its central character is a woman, which scholars have contrasted with the male-centred Territory of Xavier Herbert’s Capricornia. An Australian National University (ANU) Press study notes that the continuing popularity of Capricornia has overshadowed Hatfield’s female character, who explores the same theme in Black Waterlily. The story includes a mission-station doctor who is noted for his sincerity and rapport with Aboriginal people, and the station is recognisable as Oenpelli, in the Northern Territory.