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3 unusual facts about Dorothea Mackellar


Dorothea Mackellar

(The Canberra suburb of McKellar was not named after her, but is often assumed to have been.)

A federal electorate covering half of Sydney's Northern Beaches is named in her honour as well as a street in the Canberra suburb of Cook.

Mentone Girls' Secondary College

Of these, Jackson House was named in celebration of Marjorie Jackson; Elizabeth Kenny is the namesake of Kenny House; Melba House is named after Nellie Melba and Dorothea Mackellar is the inspiration for Mackellar House.


Jean Isherwood

In 1982 Isherwood heard on the radio that a statue was to be erected as a memorial to Dorothea Mackellar at Gunnedah, on Australia Day, 26 January 1983.

Leonard Teale

His reading of Dorothea Mackellar's patriotic poem which includes the line "I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains" became so popular in the 1970s that it was frequently used to parody him.

My Country

"My Country" is an iconic patriotic poem about Australia, written by Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968) at the age of 22 while homesick in the United Kingdom.


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