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A visit to Dromkeen is a magical immersion in the world of Australian children’s literature. On beautiful grounds with long vistas of the surrounding countryside, Dromkeen is the former country home of children’s book sellers and supporters Court and Joyce Oldmeadow. Now owned and administered by Scholastic Australia, the property houses the Oldmeadows’ collection of early Australian children’s books, a reference library, and a children’s library, as well as their lovingly assembled Dromkeen Collection of valuable original materials–manuscripts, drafts, sketches, book dummies, story boards and other evidence of the process of book production, over 6,000 pieces in all.

These resources are put to regular use by 7500 visitors annually. Schoolchildren come on day trips and for 3-day bookmaking workshops with illustrators and writers. (They stay at a nearby camp.) Teachers come for professional development seminars. Uni students and graduate scholars come to peruse the primary source materials. Changing displays of illustrators’ work occupy the four large public gallery rooms of the house. There’s an adjoining building where other art is exhibited and visitors can picnic or have tea on the grounds while they watch and listen to the peacocks–and the screeching cockatoos!

In warm weather, a writer arrives monthly on Sunday afternoons to read a story to visitors young and old. There’s a magic cape, decorated by Australia’s most beloved illustrators, and a throne-like storytelling chair. An outdoor sculpture garden features bronzes of characters from Aussie classics like the gumbaby from Meg Gibbs‘ 1918 Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. For a list of outstanding children’s books about the Australian natural environment, including Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, click here. (And here for Tim Young’s new book, Drawn to Enchant, documenting American children’s book illustration from the Yale Beinecke Library.)

Dromkeen also has a dvd library of writers and artists talking about their work and has recently published two Sketchbook dvds as teaching resources, “Illustrators at Work” and “Producing a Picture Book.” In each, noted illustrators, some also authors, demonstrate their process.The prestigious Dromkeen Medal has been awarded annually since 1982 for “significant contribution to the appreciation and development of children’s literature in Australia,” and a Librarian’s Award is also conferred yearly.

Dromkeen is only about an hour’s drive out of Melbourne, north of the airport. It’s a treasure that’s certainly worth the trip. Many thanks to Judith Macdonald for making my visit possible!

I’ve just come back from one month in Brazil (where I was, unexpectedly, pretty much incommunicado) to find that I missed the Australian stop of the multi-blog event One Shot World Tour, organized by the same group that put together the Summer Blog Blast Tour and this week’s Recommendations from Under the Radar. Some of the dishes served up at the several-course (Vegemite and all) Australian meal were: interviews with Margo Lanagan and Queenie Chan at 7 Imp Things and the YA YA YAs, respectively, and an exploration of John Marsden’s Tomorrow Series at Jen Robinson’s Page (see full OSWT schedule here).

I’d like to add my contribution, late as it may be, by pointing folks to award-winning Australian writer Susanne Gervay’s latest ya book, That’s Why I Wrote This Song, a cutting edge story set against the rock music scene, about sixteen year old girls connected through music as they search for identity. In a recent article contributed to PaperTigers, Gervay tells us: “[The book] embraces other mediums and technologies, in a collaborative work with my songwriter and musician daughter, Tory, who wrote the lyrics and rock music that are integral to the story (…). The story also has the dimension of film, as a young producer translated Tory’s song ‘Psycho Dad’ into a film clip.” The song and the video are available for downloading from the author’s website.

For more Aussie kidlit talents, check out the following: interview with Hazel Edwards, ‘personal views’ article by Chris Cheng, and Caroline Magerl and Shaun Tan online galleries.