Dorothy Mackellar's Poem 'My Australia'

English literature have been used to express the experiences and history of Australia. In Dorothy Mackellar’s “My Australia” poem, signifies the beauties and the terrors of the luck country. However, Migrants experience a different terror, as conveyed by Ania Walwicz as the “big, ugly” side of Australians - facing the cruel racism of the White Australian Policy. In Australia’s history, Migrants have been treated with alienation and physical discrimination which distant them from Australia’s community. Migrants not only faces the terrors of the land but also the racism enforced by Australia’s laws.

In Post-Colonial prose and poetry, the terror was about Australia’s ‘fire, flood and famine’, migrants however faced victimisation from the white

Migrants who appeared physically different or who were English illiterate were discriminated from the community, which was enforced by the White Australian Policy. “She’s got no right being in this country in the first place… Who let you into the country?”, from page 250-251, suggests that Francesca, an Italian migrant, was not welcomed and demonstrates the disrespect that migrants were being treated with. Eaton highlights the uninviting nature of who were rude out of the fear of the threat implied by the White Australian Policy. Additionally, Francesca is abused due to her inability to “speak English”, from page 251 of Fireshadow. Thus, displays the verbal abuse and humiliation from the ignorance of Albino Australians – who are intolerant when dealing with migrants. Walwicz further expresses this perspective on how Australians are “not very friendly” and “never accept” migrants– positioning the readers to sympathise with migrants who are segregated from society. Ania uses high modality to enforce the guilt she is attempting to portray, which is further increased by the repletion of personal pronouns. However, this poem silences the Albino Australians as they are not given a perspective on the poem. The alienation that migrants are constantly faced with leads to the victimisation through verbal and physical