Settler Romances and the Australian Girl argues that prevailing understandings of British colonialism need to be radically rethought. The book takes as its starting point anxieties about concepts of whiteness and femininity in settler Australia, and sets out highly original readings of turn-of-the-century adventure fictions and ethnographies. In so doing, Settler Romances and the Australian Girl provides compelling insights into ideologies of race, class and gender in colonial and contemporary Australia, and demonstrates that current post-colonial theories are inadequate in their treatment of so-called settler or second world cultures. Texts discussed include Miles Franklin's My Brilliant Career, Catherine Martin's An Australian Girl, adventure novels by J. D. Hennessey and Rosa Campbell Praed, and ethnographic works by Katharine Langloh Parker.