A Day celebrating the 130th Anniversary of Ethel Turner’s Seven Little Australians.
The day began at 9am when we gathered at ‘Woodlands’ Killara to celebrate September 1894 when Ethel Turner received her first copy of Seven Little Australians. Woodlands a heritage-listed property was once home to Ethel Turner and where she penned this classic story.
It was a wonderful spring day celebrating with speakers, with stories and research, with re-enacting Ethels words, music, tours , games and activities.
The Society of Women Writers had a booth. It gave us an opportunity to advertise the Society and to talk about writing and how Ethel was an early member of the Society.
Ethel Turner lived at a time in the late 19th century, when women would start earning recognition for their works and perhaps start to get their seat at the table alongside their male contemporaries more than ever before, even if there was still a lot of gatekeeping.
Albert and Eva Lin who bought the house in 2017 realised ‘Woodlands’ was included on the State Heritage Register and they decided to learn more about Ethel Turner.
Realising althought her iconic novel was still available, Ethel herself had been largely forgotten, they immediately set about to rectify that. In conjunction with local historians and the local council, Albert and Ava set about resoring both home and garden to their former glory days. Although keen to modernise the home for their young family, they have restored part of the house to reflect its 1890’s inspiration for Turner’s imagination including a library of her complete works . As Albert says:
‘Woodlands’ has been around before I existed. It will be around long after I cease to exist. As its present custodian, if i do not do this that I am doing, who else?
The celebration included a small fair, some rare books on display and some to buy,
some local musical presentation by local schools a wonderful talk by our own Libby Hathorn (SWW) and by the Ethel Turner scholar and children’s author, Abbey Lane. 
