Gunnedah

Distinguished and Famous people from Gunnedah

📜 Dorothea Mackellar

Poet Dorothea Mackellar had a lasting connection with Kurrumbede, her family’s property near Gunnedah. Her brothers lived and worked there, and she visited the district regularly. Best known for My Country, first published in 1908, she became closely associated with writing about Australian landscapes. Gunnedah continues that literary association through the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards.

The familiar title came after the poem itself. Written during a homesick period in England, it first appeared as Core of My Heart in 1908 and was later renamed My Country for her first poetry collection. Mackellar also recorded her excitement when women in New South Wales gained voting rights in 1902, a glimpse of interests extending beyond the landscapes for which she is remembered.