Who wrote The Drover's Wife?

The Drover's Wife was written by Australian author Henry Lawson and first published in 1892. It is one of his best known bush stories.

What is The Drover's Wife about?

The story follows a bushwoman alone in an isolated hut who keeps watch through the night to protect her four children from a snake while her husband is away droving.

What are the main themes of The Drover's Wife?

Key ideas include the harshness and isolation of the bush, the strength and stoicism of bush women, gender roles, and the loss of hopes and dreams.

How is The Drover's Wife studied for the HSC?

The story is studied as one of Henry Lawson's prescribed short stories for HSC English, usually alongside stories such as The Loaded Dog and The Union Buries its Dead.

What techniques should students analyse in The Drover's Wife?

Focus on Lawson's use of repetition, personification, juxtaposition and symbolism, such as the she-oaks "sighing above the narrow, almost waterless creek" and the recurring image of the flat, horizonless bush.

The Drover's Wife

Prescribed for HSC English 2024–2027 (NESA) · Last reviewed September 2026The Drover's Wife is a short story by Australian writer Henry Lawson, first published in 1892. It follows a resilient bushwoman who protects her four children from a snake while her husband is away droving. The story is studied in HSC English as one of Henry Lawson's prescribed short stories.

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The Drover's Wife is a short story by Australian writer Henry Lawson, first published in 1892. It follows a resilient bushwoman who protects her four children from a snake while her husband is away droving. The story is studied in HSC English as one of Henry Lawson's prescribed short stories.

Plot

This story centres around the strength and stoicism demonstrated by a bush woman – the eponymous ‘Drover’s Wife’. Lawson opens his narrative by describing the harshness of the environment in which the woman finds herself – ‘Bush all round – bush with no horizon, for the country is flat.’

The woman and her children are described as having internalised that ruggedness, as seen in ‘Four ragged, dried-up-looking children’ and ‘The gaunt, sun-browned bushwoman.’ The central moment of conflict or tension in the text is the arrival of the snake; it is spotted first by one of the children, and is then attacked by the family dog, Alligator. It disappears, but eventually reveals itself, and is killed by the woman and the dog. The experience serves to unify the mother and her son, as he declares that he ‘won’t never go drovin’.

Context

Henry Lawson (1867-1922) is one of Australia's most celebrated short story writers. Writing in the 1890s, a decade often called the golden age of Australian short fiction, Lawson published bush stories and sketches in outlets such as The Bulletin. The Drover's Wife first appeared in 1892 and was later collected in While the Billy Boils (1896). His portrayal of the bush rejects romantic ideals: rather than a picturesque frontier, it is flat, monotonous and dangerous, and survival demands constant vigilance. The story was written at a time when colonial Australia was debating its national identity, and Lawson's realist focus on ordinary battlers, hardship and the unacknowledged labour of bush women helped shape the emerging national mythology. His sympathetic treatment of a woman's endurance also reflects the period's early feminist currents; his mother, Louisa Lawson, was a prominent suffragist and publisher.

Cultural Assumptions

Beauty of Bush Life

Lawson paints a picture of the rugged, hostile landscape of the Australian bush. The woman sees no beauty in it. Rather, for her it is a place of isolation and hardship, qualities that force her to be constantly vigilant about her children’s safety. While she does find a degree of comfort in it all – she is ‘contented with her lot’ – she nonetheless possesses a cynical outlook: ‘Everlasting, maddening sameness of the stunted trees.’

Role of Women

Lawson’s story provides a complex examination of the competing factors that shaped identity and gender roles in the bush setting. At first glance it appears to us - and Lawson's contemporary audience - that Lawson is affirming the confinement of women to the domestic sphere due to contextual misogyny and disenfranchisement. However as the title ‘The Drover’s Wife’ suggests he subverts gender expectations by having the character fulfil her motherly duties while simultaneously protecting her family and surviving alone in the bush setting. Indeed, the woman ultimately comes to play the role traditionally reserved for the man.

Quote Table

“Bush all round – bush with no horizon, for the country is flat. No ranges in the distance. The bush consists of stunted, rotten native apple-trees. No undergrowth.”
Technique
Repetition, Biblical allusion
Effect
Realities of bush life, Harshness and isolation of the bush
“She rode nineteen miles for assistance, carrying the dead child.”
Technique
Visual imagery
Effect
Loss, Harshness and isolation of the bush
“yells the eldest boy - a sharp-faced urchin of eleven. ‘Stop there, mother! I’ll have him. Stand back! I’ll have the beggar!’”
Technique
Dialogue Repetition
Effect
Realities of the bush, Exploration of gender roles
“a few she-oaks which are sighing above the narrow, almost waterless creek”
Technique
Personification Imagery
Effect
Australian landscape, Harshness and isolation of the bush
“But this bushwoman is used to the loneliness of it. As a girl-wife she hated it, but now she would feel strange away from it.”
Technique
Juxtaposition
Effect
Harshness of the bush, Impact of time
“Her surroundings are not favourable to the development of the ‘womanly’ or sentimental side of nature”
Technique
Figurative language, Inverted commas
Effect
Harshness of the bush, Exploration of gender
“Snake! Mother, here’s a snake!”
Technique
Repetition, Symbolism
Effect
Harshness of the bush
“All her girlish hopes and aspirations have long been dead.”
Technique
Personification
Effect
Loss of hopes and dreams
“As a girl she built the usual castles in the air”
Technique
Metaphor, Idiom, Juxtaposition
Effect
Gendered experience, Loss of hopes and dreams
“She put on an old pair of her husband's trousers”
Technique
Symbolism, Metaphor
Effect
Harshness of the bush, Exploration of gender

Quote	Technique	Effect
“Bush all round – bush with no horizon, for the country is flat. No ranges in the distance. The bush consists of stunted, rotten native apple-trees. No undergrowth.”	Repetition, Biblical allusion	Realities of bush life, Harshness and isolation of the bush
“She rode nineteen miles for assistance, carrying the dead child.”	Visual imagery	Loss, Harshness and isolation of the bush
“yells the eldest boy - a sharp-faced urchin of eleven. ‘Stop there, mother! I’ll have him. Stand back! I’ll have the beggar!’”	Dialogue Repetition	Realities of the bush, Exploration of gender roles
“a few she-oaks which are sighing above the narrow, almost waterless creek”	Personification Imagery	Australian landscape, Harshness and isolation of the bush
“But this bushwoman is used to the loneliness of it. As a girl-wife she hated it, but now she would feel strange away from it.”	Juxtaposition	Harshness of the bush, Impact of time
“Her surroundings are not favourable to the development of the ‘womanly’ or sentimental side of nature”	Figurative language, Inverted commas	Harshness of the bush, Exploration of gender
“Snake! Mother, here’s a snake!”	Repetition, Symbolism	Harshness of the bush
“All her girlish hopes and aspirations have long been dead.”	Personification	Loss of hopes and dreams
“As a girl she built the usual castles in the air”	Metaphor, Idiom, Juxtaposition	Gendered experience, Loss of hopes and dreams
“She put on an old pair of her husband's trousers”	Symbolism, Metaphor	Harshness of the bush, Exploration of gender

Henry Lawson Short Stories - Visual Aid

Visual aidHenry Lawson Short Stories
Stories	The Drover's Wife The Union Buries Its Dead Shooting the Moon Our Pipes The Loaded Dog
Themes	Masculinity and its Distinctive Permeations Within Lawson's Texts The Transitional Nature of Gender Roles and Harshness of Bush Identity The Stoicism and Emotional Distance of Bush Living Catalysed by the Collective Unionism and Harsh Environments
Quotes	'Or hung myself, maybe, if things got too bad.' 'Shooting the Moon' Stoicism, bush life, stereotypical identity. "Liquor, however, is stronger than Unionism; and, when the hearse presently arrived, more than two-thirds of the funeral were unable to follow.", 'The Union Buries Its Dead' Stoicism, drinking culture, bush life, unionism. "But this bushwoman is used to the loneliness of it. As a girl-wife she hated it, but now she would feel strange away from it." 'The Drover's Wife', Gender, bush life, stoicism.
Context	Henry Lawson was born in 1867 and passed away in 1922 19th Century was the start of the Distinctive Australian bush identity Lawson became partially deaf at the age of nine, which is reflected in his description of isolation within his stories. It was the journey undertaken in September 1892 by Lawson to rural Bourke New South Wales that provided the inspiration for many of the stories in the collection set for study Lawson's purpose is to represent the authentic Australian identity and story.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who wrote The Drover's Wife?: The Drover's Wife was written by Australian author Henry Lawson and first published in 1892. It is one of his best known bush stories.
What is The Drover's Wife about?: The story follows a bushwoman alone in an isolated hut who keeps watch through the night to protect her four children from a snake while her husband is away droving.
What are the main themes of The Drover's Wife?: Key ideas include the harshness and isolation of the bush, the strength and stoicism of bush women, gender roles, and the loss of hopes and dreams.
How is The Drover's Wife studied for the HSC?: The story is studied as one of Henry Lawson's prescribed short stories for HSC English, usually alongside stories such as The Loaded Dog and The Union Buries its Dead.
What techniques should students analyse in The Drover's Wife?: Focus on Lawson's use of repetition, personification, juxtaposition and symbolism, such as the she-oaks "sighing above the narrow, almost waterless creek" and the recurring image of the flat, horizonless bush.

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