'Terra Nullius' and Ajustralia' Vanishing Bodies

Abstract

In Australia, a trope of 'vanishing' situated during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries within a confident narrative of empire, was deployed in literature written late in the twentieth century to express anxiety about the relation of non-indigenous Australians to the land. This chapter considers the colonial origins of the trope and speculates on why it should have re-surfaced in such narratives of vanishing as Joan Lindsay’s 'Picnic at Hanging Rock', John Bryson’s 'Evil Angels', Thea Astley’s 'Vanishing Points', and David Malouf’s 'Remembering Babylon'.