1984 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1984.

Events

 * Tim Winton’s Shallows won the 1984 Miles Franklin Award

Novels

 * Helen Garner — The Children's Bach
 * Nicholas Hasluck — The Bellarmine Jug
 * David Ireland — Archimedes and the Seagle
 * Peter Kocan — The Treatment; and, the Cure
 * Elizabeth Jolley — Milk and Honey
 * Amanda Lohrey — The Morality of Gentlemen
 * David Malouf — Harland's Half Acre
 * Jill Neville — Last Ferry to Manly
 * Randolph Stow — The Suburbs of Hell
 * Tim Winton — Shallows

Crime and mystery

 * Marshall Browne — Dark Harbour
 * Evan Green — Alice to Nowhere
 * Tony Kenrick — Blast
 * William Marshall — The Far Away Man

Science fiction and fantasy

 * A. Bertram Chandler — The Wild Ones
 * Keith Taylor — Bard II
 * Cherry Wilder
 * A Princess of the Chameln
 * Yorath the Wolf

Short story anthologies

 * John Morrison — Stories of the Waterfront

Children's and young adult fiction

 * James Aldridge — The True Story of Lilli Stubeck
 * Robin Klein — Hating Alison Ashley
 * Emily Rodda — Something Special
 * Nadia Wheatley — Dancing in the Anzac Deli

Poetry

 * Doris Brett — The Truth about Unicorns
 * Rosemary Dobson — The Three Fates & Other Poems
 * Robert Gray — The Skylight
 * Kevin Hart — Your Shadow
 * Dorothy Porter — The Night Parrot

Awards and honours

 * Nancy Cato, for "service to Australian literature"
 * John Manifold, for "service literature as a poet and musician
 * Dorothy Auchterlonie Green, for "service to Australian literature"

Deaths
A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1984 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.


 * 21 January — Alan Marshall, writer, story teller, humanist and social documenter (born 1902)
 * 12 March — Peg Maltby, artist, book illustrator and children's writer (born 1899 in England)
 * 6 June — A. Bertram Chandler, mariner-turned-science fiction writer (born 1912)
 * 24 June — Francis Brabazon, poet and member of Meher Baba's mandali (born 1907)
 * 29 September — Hal Porter, novelist, playwright, poet and short story writer (1911)
 * 10 November — Xavier Herbert, writer (born 1901)
 * 10 December — Jean Campbell, novelist (born 1901)
 * 23 December — Joan Lindsay, novelist, playwright, essayist and visual artist (born 1896)