Sources and Provenance: Australian Short Stories
This page records what the packet contains, where the stories come from, and what the packet deliberately leaves out. It is a provenance note, not a full scholarly bibliography.
Rights and privacy. The four stories are public domain in Australia. The teaching pages are original. The packet does not reproduce copyrighted critical editions, anthologies, film stills, audio recordings, student work or school documents.
Source list
| Item | Status and provenance |
|---|---|
| "The Drover's Wife" | Henry Lawson. First published in The Bulletin, 23 July 1892; collected in While the Billy Boils (1896). Public domain. Wikisource text. |
| "The Union Buries Its Dead" | Henry Lawson. First published in Truth, 16 April 1893, as "A Bushman's Funeral"; collected in While the Billy Boils (1896). Public domain. Wikisource text. |
| "The Loaded Dog" | Henry Lawson. Collected in Joe Wilson and His Mates (1901). Public domain. Wikisource text. |
| "The Chosen Vessel" | Barbara Baynton. First published in The Bulletin, 12 December 1896, as "The Tramp"; collected in Bush Studies (1902). Public domain. Wikisource text. |
| Teaching pages | Original explanations, models, tables and scaffolds written for this packet. |
| Context timeline | A teaching summary of commonly taught historical contexts. Dates and titles are included to orient reading, not to substitute for a scholarly history. |
| Model paragraphs | Original analytical writing about the public-domain stories. Quotations are short and checked against the Wikisource texts. |
| Images | None. The packet uses type, tables and CSS only. |
| Audio and video | None. No recordings, clips or film stills are hosted. |
Public-domain status
Henry Lawson died in 1922 and Barbara Baynton died in 1929. Under Australian copyright law, published literary works by authors who died more than 70 years ago are in the public domain. The Wikisource transcriptions also state their public-domain status. This packet links to those transcriptions rather than reproducing the stories in full.
Public domain applies to the story text, not to modern introductions, annotations or critical editions. If you use a school edition, check its copyright and citation requirements separately.
What is not published
- No student work, names, results or school data.
- No assessment instrument, confidential class brief, scores, bands or test papers.
- No copyrighted anthology, critical edition, introduction or notes.
- No private library index, manifest or source folder.
- No film stills, audio recordings or other media from adaptations.
How the pages were checked
- Every local link is tested as part of the site build.
- Every page declares Australian English, a viewport, a page title and a description.
- The site is checked with automated accessibility and service-worker tests before publication.
- Quotations are checked against the public-domain texts linked above.
- Links and claims are reviewed by hand when the packet is updated.
Using the packet elsewhere
The teaching pages are published under the site's standard copyright notice. The stories are public domain and may be reused freely. If you adapt a teaching page, keep the provenance note and do not add copyrighted material that you do not have permission to publish.
Last reviewed: October 2026. If a source or link changes, update this page rather than leaving a stale claim.