The Australian $10 note features two historical Australian authors who both had great influence on the development of Australian literature. One side features a portrait of the talented Banjo Paterson, the man who authored “The Man from Snowy River” and “Waltzing Matilda”, both of which have become some of the most popular and celebrated pieces of work in Australian Literature.
The opposite side of the note features Dame Mary Gilmore, a female author from Goulburn, NSW. She wrote extensively about many social and historical topics around the time, and for that, some thought she was controversial. The side of the note she is featured on actually shows two different images of the author, one of which is a portrait taken away from an old photograph of her in her young adult life. The other image, a figure towards the background of the bill, is a painted portrait by William Dobell of Dame Mary Gilmore. The portrait was painted in 1957 and depicts the writer in a much later point in her life, when she was about 92 years of age, and was commissioned by the Australasian Book Society to commemorate her birthday.
The portrait is significant, even just in that it was painted by the artist, because it shows that her influence was already notable and people recognized her for her work and wanted to acknowledge this. Dame Mary Gilmore was very forward in her socialist views and was somewhat of an icon for a lot of women for her time.
Additionally, the $10 note also features imagery of a country woman in what could only be the outback of Australia, presumably inspired by Dame Mary Gilmore’s writings, which is appropriate to the side of the bill that seems to memorialize the author and her significance to Australia, and it’s literature.
Lilly Flack Literature Blog 
Lily this is an exceptionally well written blog entry. Well done! A visual image or two would “sell” your blog post more effectively. But keep up this great written work!
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Hi Lilly,
Your response really informed me on who the figures on the Australian $10 note are, as I have honestly never known until now! I found it very interesting how you pointed out Dame Mary Gilmore is illustrated in two different periods of her life, yet she is still highly recognisable, particularly by women, due to her prominent status within the Australian community. I also loved how you included extra information about Mary Gilmore as it allowed me to further grasp the full extent of her influence at the time. Overall, you have used great sentence structure and detail to carry your findings throughout the response, particularly noting Mary Gilmore’s involvement at the time that allowed her to become so distinctly notable by Australians today. Keep up the great work!
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