John Naish’s contribution to the literature and history of the Queensland canefields

Abstract

Welsh-born author and playwright John Naish worked and wrote on the North Queensland canefields between 1950 and 1963. Assisted by unpublished works, letters and diaries shared by the Naish family, this study outlines the full contents of Naish’s known oeuvre for the first time. It focuses on the depiction of canefield labour and society in two novels, an autobiographical piece and five plays – some newly discovered. Attitudes in his writings to sugar country class divisions, to workers and their rights, to canefield labour and labourers, to gender divisions and conflicts in the towns and fields, to race, Indigenous Australians and to British and Italian immigrants are exemplified and examined. Extensive evidence supports the conclusion that Naish was a liberal and compassionate thinker. Always competent and sometimes powerful as literature, together his works comprise an authentic socio-historical document.