English: Our Sunshine 2026

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Robert Drewe’s 1991 novel, Our Sunshine, addresses one of colonial Australia’s most enduring myths: the short life, crimes and spectacular downfall of Ned Kelly – as Drewe puts it, ‘a man whose story outgrew his life.’ With a brevity and intensity suitable to its subject matter, the story is told through a non-linear series of vignettes and fragmented, jumbled flashbacks as the Kelly Gang await their fate at the Glenrowan Inn. The narration combines third person and first person, portraying incidents, settings and characters known to those familiar with the Kelly legend. These include his imprisonment in Beechworth Gaol, the Fitzpatrick incident, Stringybark Creek, the Euroa and Jerilderie hold-ups, all leading inexorably to the siege at Glenrowan. As might be expected, the narrative has much to say about injustice, poverty, police incompetence, betrayal, sexuality, mateship, familial relations, and, of course, horses.

Drewe’s prose features a vivid and tangible sense of place with lyrical evocations of rural Victoria and an abundance of sensory detail. The narrative voice, reflecting the extraordinary charisma of the iconic bushranger, is energetic, performative and compelling. The humour is often ribald and at times macabre; there is a sense of fun and the carnivalesque, of Kelly being in some respects a clown entertaining the masses. The narration has a pervasive dreamlike quality with frequent reference to sleep and dreams, as well as the bizarre and unsettling presence of a lion at the siege, inviting reflections on the dehumanisation of Kelly in the media presentations of the day.

Gregor Jordan’s 2003 adaptation of Our Sunshine was renamed Ned Kelly, with Heath Ledger in the title role.

[source: VCAA: VCE Literature Text List 2025, p.6]

PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE ARE ALSO SEVERAL PRINT-OUTS OF ACADEMIC ARTICLES IN A FOLDER ON THE SHELVES IN THE VCE RESOURCE ROOM IN THE LITERATURE SECTION.