The 60 Best Books Set in Australia

Cloudstreet, Tim Winton

This novel follows the religious, industrious Lamb family and the boozing fractious Pickleses family. “Hailed as a classic, Tim Winton’s masterful family saga is both a paean to working-class Australians and an unflinching examination of the human heart’s capacity for sorrow, joy, and endless gradations in between.”

“Life was something you didn’t argue with, because when it came down to it, whether you barracked for God or nothing at all, life was all there was. And death.” – Tim Windon, Cloudstreet

Taboo: A Novel, Kim Scott

The “taboo” of the title is the site of a 100 year old massacre of native Noongar people that occurred when they attempted to retrieve a women who had been stolen from their community. The present day owner of the farm is hoping to cleanse the moral stain of the massacre and he invites the Noongar to visit.

The book touches on themes of language, lore and self-discovery for the protagonist, Tilly Coolman.

Voss, Patrick White

“In 1973, Australian writer Patrick White was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ‘for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature.’ Set in nineteenth-century Australia, Voss is White’s best-known book, a sweeping novel about a secret passion between the explorer Voss and the young orphan Laura.”

A Long Way from Home, Peter Carey

I’ve been slowly and steadily working my way through Carey’s canon, but there’s nothing slow or steady about this book. Irene Bobs, her husband Titch and their quiz-show failure of a neighbor Willy, take off on a madcap car race circumnavigating Australia. As they race around the continent, you get glimpses into the maddening nature of Irene and Titch’s marriage and witness Willy’s jump start into a new life. Carey propels you out the gate with his opening line:

“For a girl to defeat one father is a challenge, but there were two standing between me and what I wanted, which was—not to fiddle-faddle– a lovely little fellow named Titch Bobs.”, – Irene Bobs, A Long Way from Home

Too Much Lip, Melissa Lucashenko

Pop is dying and and Kerry is on the run with a stolen Harley. She reluctantly heads to the family homestead to hide out. Between her alcoholic brother, disapproving mother and reclusive nephew, it just might fall upon Kerry to hold the family together while a big secret threatens to explode all over them.

This book was the winner of the Miles Franklin award in 2019 and it’s a great choice if you are looking to double-dip your diverse reads as it features a queer, aboriginal main character.

The Place on Dalhousie, Melina Marchetta

Rosie Gennaro meets Jimmie after walking away from Sydney and the house her father built on Dalhousie. She returns to Dalhousie, pregnant and short on options, to share the home with her reluctant step-mother.

Other popular books by Marchetta include Saving Francesca (a precursor to Dalhousie) and Looking for Alibrandi (a coming of age tale).

Guilt is a burden. So forgive yourself for the mistakes” – Melina Marchetta

The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton

“A tale that begins in England and travels across the many miles to Australia, comes home again to England to undo over a hundred years of secrets”. When Cassandra’s grandmother Nell dies, she inherits a book of dark and intriguing fairy tales and a mysterious family tale that sends her searching for her grandmother’s history.

The Sisters’ Song, Louise Allan

This book delivers a strong emotional pull as you follow Ida and Nora, two sisters living in Tasmania. When their father dies, they move in with their grandmother where Nora’s musical talent is encouraged and Ida takes on a career as a nanny. Their lives fork as they enter adulthood but they reconnect when Nora’s life and dreams have fallen into a heap.

A Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman

This book is an “… incredibly moving novel about what happens when good people make bad decisions. The story takes place in the town of Point Partageuse, Australia during the 1920s. The story begins when a lighthouse keeper and his wife find a life boat containing a live baby (and dead man) on the shore of their isolated island.

Through a mixture of misplaced intentions and unsupported superstition they decide to raise the child as their own — deciding not to inform the authorities of the child’s existence”.

And that decision has some very tragic consequences.

A Fraction of the Whole, Steve Tolz

Along a similar vein as A Confederacy of Dunces, this Australian novel also features odd protagonists offering meditations on the absurdity of modern life. In Fraction, Jasper Dean reflects upon a life with his crackpot, certifiably paranoid father. Martin drags his son through a series of wacky schemes and unexpected twists from Australia to Paris to Thailand.

“…she gave me a look that deftly combined tenderness with revulsion. To this day, the memory of that look still visits me like a Jehovah’s Witness: uninvited and tireless” –Steve Tolz

Candy, Luke Davies

Candy is a love story, a horror story and an adventure. Our narrator falls in love with Candy, a beautiful aspiring actress. They then introduce a third wheel into their relationship– heroin. While they remain in love, but their lives perform a slowly burning downward spiral as they get more and more out of control. “A beautifully written train wreck.”

Praise, Andrew McGahan

In Brisbane in the ’90s, it was easier to be on the dole than get a job, and heroin was better known than ecstasy. Praise is not your basic love story between two rebellious teenagers, but rather, it’s about their feeling of uncertainty and depression regarding the future.

“… a seminal piece of Australian grunge fiction.”

Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton

I hesitated including yet another 80’s/90’s book featuring crooked family members and heroin. What on earth was going on in Australia during that time? However, it’s worth meeting our Eli as he struggles to follow his heart and learns how to do what it takes to become a good man.

“…hugging Dad back feels like the good thing to do and my hope is to grow into a good man, so I do it.” –Eli Bell

The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, Henry Handel Richardson

While initially content with his wife Mary, Richard Mahony ultimately becomes restless. He goes from the gold fields in Ballarat, to the rest of Australia and abroad, shattering their security and ultimately plunging them into poverty. Richardson (who was a women, writing with a male nom de plume) captured Richard’s endless searching with “…the inevitability of a Greek tragedy”.

The Harp in the South, Ruth Park

This Australian classic, captures the essence of Sydney’s hard life as lived by the Darcy family in the mid 1900’s. Despite their hardscrabble existence among the grog shops, brothels and boarding houses, they managed to find a lot of love amongst the mess and slum in Surry Hills.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan

“The novel is about…life, death, despair, loneliness, love, connection, redemption, poetry. It’s a grim work, centered on the experiences of the Australian prisoners of war who were used as slave labor in the construction of the Thailand-Burma railway during World War II”.

The protagonist, Dorrigo Evans, is haunted by a love affair with this uncle’s wife and he battles to save the lives of his fellow POWs. This is yet another Booker prize winner by the author of The Sound of One Hand Clapping and Gould’s Book of Fish.

The Secret River, Kate Grenville

In 1806, Thomas Thornhill, an illiterate Englishman steals a load of wood, and for punishment he and his wife are deported to Australia. He realizes that in order to make a life for his family, he must forcibly take the land from the people who came before him.

“A haunting, captivating, atmospheric, well-written saga of two worlds colliding in an uncompromising wilderness around the Hawkerville river near Perth, Australia.” Grenville won the Commonwealth prize for this book and she is also the author of The Lieutenant, which is also historical fiction.

True Story of the Kelly Gang, Peter Carey

Follow Ned Kelly’s wild ride around Victoria, Australia as he robs banks and steals the hearts of his fellow countrymen. Carey tells the story from Kelly’s own point of view and it’s stuffed full of the colorful characters and colloquialisms. Carey is my favorite Australian author and he’s a genius at propelling the stories from the very first line.

“I lost my own father at 12 yr of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences. My dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word of what I write but this history is for you and will contain no lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false.” — Ned Kelley.

Preservation, Jock Serong

In 1797, a fishing boat picks up three shipwrecked survivors on a beach, all of whom are injured and distressed. They’ve walked for hundreds of miles, losing fourteen companions along the way. Lieutenant Joshua Grayling is tasked with investigating what happened but as he digs through their evasive story he uncovers a far more harrowing account than originally thought.

The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough

This sweeping epic follows three generations of the Cleary family as they live their lives on a sheep station in Drogheda. The central characters are Meggie (the only Cleary daughter) and her handsome, ambitious priest, Ralph de Bricassart. The book is a sprawling soap opera in a hauntingly beautiful setting.

Carpentaria, Alexis Wright

In this Aboriginal epic, Wright gives voice to Australia’s native population, their myths and oral traditions. It’s a magically realistic swirl of the tropical north featuring a culture clash between the Aboriginal and white populations. It was the unambiguous winner of the Miles Franklin award in 2017.

The Dressmaker, Rosalie Ham

After twenty years spent mastering the art of dressmaking at couture houses in Paris, Tilly Dunnage returns to the small Australian town that she was banished from as a child. She’s there to tend to her somewhat crazy mother, who is also a town outcast. Satirical, dark and gothic.

The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion

In this book club favorite, Simsion’s Don Tillman, a brilliant but socially awkward professor of genetics is determined to find himself a wife. Don’s Aspergers and Rosie’s free spirited nature make them an unlikely pair. “It’s a fun, quirky and erudite love story. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and unexpectedly touching.”

Read it for book club and use our Rosie Project discussion guide to get the conversation started. And if you’ve already read it, he’s got two others in the series. We also have other book guides featuring social awkward or neurodiverse characters, including: The Maid and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

Amelia Westlake Was Never Here, Erin Gough

“If you’re looking for a smart YA contemporary featuring calculated plans to denounce sexist, misogynistic, homophobic and overall discriminatory behaviors at an elite private school as well as a slow-burn romance between the two female leads, this is the book for you”.

Follow Harriet and Will as they team up to expose the misdeeds of the swim coach, under the guise of the fictitious student, Amelia Westlake.

Beautiful Messy Love, Tess Woods

This contemporary romance follows four characters through their complicated and interconnected lives. Woods uses topical subjects like social media, terrorism and asylum seekers to keep the story line thoroughly modern.

Nick, a famous AFL player, falls for Anna, the Muslim daughter of Egyptian immigrant. Meanwhile, Nick’s sister Lily is struggling to finish her medical degree when she meets and immediately falls for Toby.

I Am the Messenger, Markus Zusak

This is a twisty and page-turning book by the author of The Book Thief (which is not a book on Australia, but it’s heart-breaker with a surprisingly sympathetic narrator, and worth a read).

Ed Kennedy is our main character here. He’s an underage cabdriver, who likes to hang with his dog but sucks at doing his taxes. After foiling a bank robbery, he begins receiving messages that steer him towards helping others, bringing his humanity along for the ride.

If you have read and loved The Book Thief, you should also check out our list of books that feature books in the storylines.

The Dry (Aaron Falk series #1), Jane Harper

It’s refreshing to find a main character in a mystery series who has enough issues to make him interesting but isn’t a total wreck. Harper’s Aaron Falk is such a man. In The Dry, he is back in his hometown attending the funeral of his best friend. The visit surfaces old suspicious of regarding Falk’s alleged involvement in a murder.

He reluctantly decides to investigate and lays bare a host of town secrets. Keep an eye on Harper, because she is turning out some solid Australian novels featuring mysterious Australian landscapes as a key character.

Actually- just clear your decks and read all of Jane Harper. These aren’t your cookie cutter police procedurals. All of her characters are complicated and mysteries at the center of her plots lay bare the human condition.

Bad Debts (Jack Irish #1), Peter Temple

Jack Irish is a fully formed gumshoe. He’s got all of the cred; dodgy and opportunistic, with a softer side as a recovering alcoholic, wood worker and footy fan. He brings Melbourne to life as he tries to figure out why his ex-client has turned up dead.

If you like Bad Debts, there are four more in the series to keep you busy.

Moonlight Downs (Emily Tempest #1), Adrian Hylands

“Emily Tempest, a feisty part-Aboriginal woman, who left home to get an education and has since traveled abroad. She returns to visit the Moonlight Downs ‘mob’, still uncertain if she belongs in the Aboriginal world or that of the ‘whitefellers’. Within hours of her arrival, an old friend is murdered and mutilated.”

The police suspect a rogue Aboriginal, and Emily tries to solve the mystery in an effort to help the community heal. There are two books in the series.

Jasper Jones, Craig Silvey

It’s 1965 and Western Australia is having a scorching hot summer. Bookish Charlie and the town outcast head out into the night, where they find a grisly discovery. The boys develop an unlikely friendship as they try to unravel the mysterious they encountered. But they also encounter small town prejudices, racism, hostility and even a sweet love story.

“The mood and atmosphere of the 1960s small-town Australian setting is perfectly realized—suspenseful, menacing, and claustrophobic—with issues of race and class boiling just below the surface.”

Scrublands (Martin Scarsden #1), Chris Hammer

Journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in Riversend thinking that he is simply covering the anniversary of a tragic mass shooting by the local priest. But the stories that he hears from the congregation don’t square with the accepted (and reported) version of the events. Hammer weaves together multiple story lines into a page turning, atmospheric crime read.

Tomorrow When the War Begins, John Marsden

This is my kind of dystopian book: lots of action, plucky teenagers and plenty of food. Ellie and her friends return from a camping trip to find that their whole town has been mysteriously abducted. They have to decide whether to run, give up, or stand and fight.

“These teens aren’t dumbed down…they read complicated and brave and scared and falling apart all at the same time”. This book is part of a series, so if you like the first one, you’ve got 7 more coming.

Terra Nullius, Claire G. Coleman

Australia’s distant future looks a lot like its colonial past. In the hot, dusty landscape of Western Australia, the Settlers have taken over, relegating “The Natives” to, essentially, cattle status. Some of the self-righteous Settlers deploy terror and brutality, while others are just trying to make a life on the land.

“It was a land of bones he walked, a land of death and bones and pain. He had helped make it that way, had added bones to the soil. He was as guilty as any other. “ — Claire G. Coleman

The Natural Way of Things, Charlotte Wood

In this dystopic story, reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale, two women wake up from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in the remote Outback. As they toil in the brutal sun at the abandoned outpost, they come to learn that they each have a connection to a sexual scandal with a powerful man.

It’s a challenging feminist parable with darkly realistic overtones. Winner of the 2016 Stella award.

The Spirits of the Ghan, Judy Nunn

As Australia charges into the new millennium, a century-old dream is about to be realized, with a railway link connecting Adelaide with the Top End. The completion of the mighty Ghan railway is hitting complications in Alice Springs and its up to Jessica Manning to negotiate with local Elders to smooth the way.

A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute

Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman living in Malaysia, is captured by the invading Japanese and forced onto a brutal 7-month death March. She returns home intact but later decides to revisit the villagers who saved her life. While there, she learns something that sends her to a remote Australian outpost, requiring her to use all of the courage and determination at her disposal.

Ned Kelly, Peter Fitzsimons

As a companion to Peter Carey’s fictionalized account of Ned Kelly’s life (noted above), Fitzsimons attempts to piece together a credible accounting of Kelly’s life. Many historians disagree over whether or not he was a lawless thug or Robin Hood, and this epic read will give you the information to decide for yourself.

True Girt: The Unauthorized History of Australia, David Hunt

The word “girt” is Australian slang for the past tense of gird, as in “gird your loins” and is rarely used…except for the Australian national anthem. In Hunt’s unconventional history of Australia, he breezily brings to light the country’s checkered past with colorful, corrupt characters.

“Australia was the place to be. Unless you were black. Or a woman. Or gay. Or suspected of being Irish. Or even worse, all of the above.” — David Hunt

The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding, Robert Hughes

The history of Australia’s birth, arising from England’s infamous convict transportation system. He covers the difficult conditions under which the prisoners worked off their sentences as well as the the Aboriginal extinction that came with the colonization of the land.

If you like these kinds of deep historical explorations, check out my list of books set in Spain. It includes a Hughes book about Barcelona and quite a few other historical novels set during the civil war and the Inquisition.

No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, Behrouz Boochani

Omid Tofighian, translator

Boochani is a well-respected Kurdish journalist who, in 2013, fled from Iran to escape persecution. When his refugee boat capsized, he was indefinitely and illegally detained at the Australian detention center on Manus Island, where he remained until 2020. While the detention center closed in 2017, the prisoners remained for years after, fending for themselves on the island.

He painstakingly wrote this memoir using a smuggled cell phone and Whatsapp. This remarkable book won the Victorian Prize for Literature.

Talking to My Country, Stan Grant

In this missive to his countrymen, Grant writes passionately about what its like to grow up in Aboriginal Australia. By sharing the challenges he experienced growing up, he highlights the cultural inequities facing modern Australia and challenges his countrymen to do better.

Tracks: One Woman’s Journey Across 1,700 Miles of Australian Outback, Robyn Davidson

Davidson journeyed across 1,700 miles of intense Outback with only four camels and a dog for company. She says, “I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there’s no going back.”

Dang! You go girl!