The lesson of "The Yellow Sand": Robert Drewe's dissection of "The Good Old Past" in The Drowner and Grace

Abstract

[Extract] Robert Drewe's investment in the past and history is much commented on but not always understood. Its very obviousness, together with the variety of subjects chosen, has deflected attention away from the evolving, subtly changing nature of his response to the historical record. This has, of course, ranged from the adversarial to the nostalgic and elegiac, and a similar diversity characterises the historical sources drawn on for his major fiction, beginning with genocide in Tasmania and Australia's place in the Asia-Pacific region, through the making of national folk-heroes, to an autobiography and stories based on his early life in Perth.⁽ Nevertheless, there are discernible continuities in his writing, as well as attitudes towards history that cause him profound misgivings. The latter were touched on in a talk presented at a number of venues, entitled "Where the Yellow Sand Stops," in which he gently mocked Australians for their attachment to bygone days.