Early Lives
Vance was born in Bundaberg, Queensland, on 28 August 1885 and attended the Ipswich Grammar School. With no university in Queensland at the time, he studied contemporary Australian writing at the intellectual hub in Brisbane at the time, the School of Arts, following the work of A.G. Stephens. Working in various jobs, he took a position as a tutor at Abbieglassie cattle station, 800 kilometres west of Brisbane in the 'back of beyond'. He also worked as a manager: at that time there was a large Aboriginal population with whom he both worked and celebrated, attending their frequent corroborrees. It was here his love of the land and environmental awareness was honed, so too his interest in white black relationships. From his early years he was determined to be a writer, and in 1905 and again in 1910 he went to London, then the centre of Australia's cultural universe, to learn his craft and advance his prospects. He was acknowledged as an expert on foreign affairs - in Mexico and Ireland. His association with Alfred Orage and his work for the New Age and other guild socialists greatly influenced his political outlook.
Nettie Higgins was born in Bendigo, Victoria, the niece of H.B. Higgins, a leading Victorian radical political figure and later a federal minister and justice of the High Court of Australia. A brilliant scholar and linguist, she was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne, the University of Melbourne and studied phonetics in Germany and France for the International Diploma of Phonetics. She was active in literary and socialist circles on her return to Melbourne and formed a deep and long term relationship with the visionary poet Bernard O'Dowd. While her brother Esmonde Higgins was a prominent early Australian Communist, neither Nettie nor Vance ever joined any political party: they were much more interested in broad social change. To suggest Nettie and Vance were liberals is to misrepresent them: in their young adulthood, before their children, they were extremely active in a number of radical causes (later in textual representation).
Vance and Nettie met in 1909 and married in London in 1914. When World War I broke out they returned to Australia, where their daughters Aileen and Helen were born in 1915 and 1917. In 1918 Vance joined the Australian Army, but the war ended before he saw service. Vance, Nettie and Esmonde all campaigned against the Hughes government's attempt to introduce conscription into Australia.
Read more about this topic: Vance And Nettie Palmer
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or lives:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“We want our children to become warm, decent human beings who reach out generously to those in need. We hope they find values and ideals to give their lives purpose so they contribute to the world and make it a better place because they have lived in it. Intelligence, success, and high achievement are worthy goals, but they mean nothing if our children are not basically kind and loving people.”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)