User:RobynF

Olga Ernst
At the age of sixteen, in 1904, Australian pupil teacher Olga Dorothea Agnes Ernst wrote Fairytales from the land of the Wattle. It was part of a new development in Australian children's literature, which leaned towards the creation of an Australian Bush fantasy genre. In books such as Atha Westbury's Australian Fairy Tales authors sought to transpose traditional old world faerie folk into the new Australian landscape. Ernst aimed to create a fairyland that Australian children could relate to and the publisher's note in Fairytales from the land of the Wattle confirms her motive in choosing to write the fairytales contained in the book. These are written in the hope that they will... win approval of those to whom a loving study of tree and flower, bird and insect, and the association of familiar elements of old world fairy-lore with Australian surroundings.

Ernst wrote two more books, one The Magic Shadow Show a book of short fantasies while teaching at Orbost and Rutherglen Higher Elementary Schools in country Victoria.

Her third book, one of nursery rhymes about the mountains of the Dandenong Ranges, Songs from the Dandenongs began as poems written for her own children. After the poems were published in the Literary Section of an Australian Newspaper in 1938 under her married name of Waller, Ernst chose to self-publish. The book enjoyed moderate success locally and was reprinted three times.

Later Ernst worked closely with Australian sculptor | William Ricketts who sold her books in his gallery, writing and editing catalogues for his exhibitions. ==References== --RobynF (talk) 09:46, 28 December 2009 (UTC)