In this landmark collection of Australian writing spanning well over a century, and Australia emerges which is radically different from the clichDed land of bronzed lifeguares and long-suffering sheepfarmers' wives. Robert Dessaix's anthbology reflects the diversity, non-vonformity, and ambiguity that have always been features of Australian society. An anthology of gay themes, rather than gay writers, it includes works by most of the country's celebrated authors, including Patrick White, Thea Astley, David Malouf, Elizabeht Jolley, Frank Moorhouse, and Helen Garner, along with a number of newer writer.^L A rare and refreshing openness permeates the entertaining and provocative volume. Through the fiction, poetry, and drama of over forty writer, hte collection traces th development of a rich variety of gay and lesbian sensibilities from colonial times to the present. Dessaix provides a long and helpful introductory overview of the literature.^L Ranging from the poetic to the polemical, the enigmatic to the erotic, this anthology celebrated the adventurousness and sophistication of Australian cultural history.