Elyne Mitchell, (born Sibyl Elyne Chauvel on 30 December 1913 Melbourne, Victoria - died 4 March 2002 Corryong, Victoria) was an Australian author noted for the Silver Brumby series of childrens' novels. Set in the Snowy Mountains area of the Australian Alps around Mount Kosciuszko in southern New South Wales and northern Victoria, the books recount the life of the white brumby stallion Thowra from his birth in The Silver Brumby (first published 1958) to Silver Brumby Whirlwind. The Silver Brumby was the basis of a film of the same name in 1993 starring Caroline Goodall as Mitchell and Russell Crowe as The Man. This film was also released under the title The Silver Stallion: King of the Wild. There is also a children's cartoon TV series of the same name, which uses some character names, but at best is only a very loose adaptation of the books. Elyne Mitchell's other works of fiction are also set in the Snowy Mountains around Thredbo and the Cascade Hut and are populated by brumbies and other animals, native and feral. The brumby stories generally intersect geographically or thematically with the Silver Brumby books and various characters from the Silver Brumby books may appear in the others. Jump to: navigation, search December 30 is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 1 day remaining. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1913 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Jump to: navigation, search City of Melbourne Local Government Area State Victoria Lord Mayor John So (since 2001) Area 36 km² Population (2001) 57,960 Density 1,601/km² (1999) Greater Melbourne Subdivisions Local Government Areas Area 7,694 km² (1999) Population 2001 census (2nd in Australia) 3,555,321... Jump to: navigation, search Motto: Peace and Prosperity Nickname: Garden State Other Australian states and territories Capital Melbourne Government Governor Premier Const. ... Jump to: navigation, search March 4 is the 63rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (64th in leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search 2002(MMII) is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Corryong is a small town in Victoria, Australia. ... Jump to: navigation, search Motto: Peace and Prosperity Nickname: Garden State Other Australian states and territories Capital Melbourne Government Governor Premier Const. ... Worldwind image of Snowy Mountains The Snowy Mountains (the Snowies) are the tallest Australian mountain range and contain Australias tallest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko at 2228 metres above sea level. ... The Australian Alps viewed from Mount Buffalo The Australian Alps is a general term for the highest mountain ranges in south-eastern Australia. ... Mount Kosciuszko, located in the Snowy Mountains, in Kosciuszko National Park, is the highest mountain in mainland Australia. ... Jump to: navigation, search Motto: Orta Recens Quam Pura Nites (Newly Risen, How Brightly You Shine) Nickname: First State, Premier State Other Australian states and territories Capital Sydney Government Governor Premier Const. ... Jump to: navigation, search Motto: Peace and Prosperity Nickname: Garden State Other Australian states and territories Capital Melbourne Government Governor Premier Const. ... A brumby is a wild (feral) horse in Australia. ... Caroline Goodall (born on 13 November 1959 in London, England) is an English actress. ... Jump to: navigation, search Russell Crowe Russell Ira Crowe (born April 7, 1964) is an Oscar-winning film actor born in Wellington, New Zealand of Welsh, Norwegian and 1/16th Maori extraction. ... Thredbo is a village and ski resort in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. ...

Her novels describe eastern Australian terrain and wildlife in considerable detail. She was part of a wave of nationalist Australian writing in that gathered strength in the late 1930s and 1940s and her work is generally described as having a landscape aesthetic. Although the horses and other animals in her books speak to each other, they are not anthropomorphic and particularly in the first two Silver Brumby books, otherwise behave naturally. Nationalism is an ideology that creates and sustains a nation as a concept of a common identity for groups of humans. ... Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification or prosopopeia, is the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, forces of nature, and others. ...

Her nonfiction works draw on family history and culture. Elyne Mitchell was the daughter of General Sir Henry George (Harry) Chauvel, who was the commander of the ANZAC Mounted Division Light Horse and Desert Mounted Corps in World War I famous for the charge at Beersheba. Categories: Stub | 1865 births | 1945 deaths | Australian World War I people ... The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (popularly abbreviated as ANZAC) was originally an army corps of Australian and New Zealand troops who fought in World War I at Gallipoli, in the Middle East and on the Western Front. ... The Australian Light Horse in Palestine during World War I The Australian Light Horse soldiers were mounted infantry who served during the Boer War and World War I. The Light Horse differed from cavalry in that they usually fought dismounted, using their horses as transport to the battlefield and as... The Desert Mounted Corps was a World War I Allied army corps that operated in the Middle East (Sinai and Palestine) during 1917 and 1918. ... Jump to: navigation, search World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ... Jump to: navigation, search Soroka Hospital, Beersheba Beersheba or Beer-sheva (Hebrew: בְּאֶר שֶׁבַע ▶(?), Standard Hebrew Bəʼer Šévaʻ, Tiberian Hebrew Bəʼer Šéḇaʻ or בְּאֶר שָׁבַע Bəʼer Šāḇaʻ; Arabic بِئْرْ اَلْسَبْعْ Biʼr as-Sabʻ ▶(?)) is a city in Israel. ...

She married lawyer, and later parliamentarian, Thomas Walter Mitchell, and moved with him to the mountains. He taught her to ski, and they had four children - Walter Harry, John, Honnor, and Indi. According to an interview with Tom Wright, the "Silver Brumby" series arose from Mrs Mitchell's difficulties in finding suitable reading material for her daughter Indi, then 10 and being raised in some isolation on the Mitchell family property Towong Hill, a remote cattle station in the Snowy Mountains. Elyne Mitchell was a keen skier and horsewoman - in 1938 she won the Canadian downhill skiing championship, and according to Tom Wright, in 1941 she became the first woman to descend on skis the entire western face of the Snowy Mountains. Jump to: navigation, search Cattle station is an Australian term for a large farm (Australian ranch), usually in the outback, whose main activity is the raising of cattle. ... Worldwind image of Snowy Mountains The Snowy Mountains (the Snowies) are the tallest Australian mountain range and contain Australias tallest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko at 2228 metres above sea level. ...

Mrs Mitchell was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to literature in 1988 and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Charles Sturt University in 1993. The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established by Queen Elizabeth II on February 14, 1975 for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service. The Order includes three classes in general and military divisions, in descending order of... Charles Sturt University (CSU) is an Australian multi-campus university in rural New South Wales. ...

Bibliography

Fiction

• Flow River, Blow Wind (1953)
• Black Cockatoos Mean Snow (1956)
• The Silver Brumby (1958)
• Silver Brumby's Daughter (1960)
• Kingfisher Feather (1962)
• Winged Skis (1964)
• Silver Brumbies of the South (1965)
• Silver Brumby Kingdom (1966)
• Moon Filly (1968)
• Jinki: Dingo of the Snows (1970)
• Light Horse to Damascus (1971)
• Silver Brumby Whirlwind (1973)
• The Colt at Taparoo (1973)
• Son of the Whirlwind (1979)
• The Colt from Snowy River (1980)
• Snowy River Brumby (1980)
• Brumby Racer (1981)
• The Man from Snowy River (1982) (novelization of the screenplay of the film, based on the poem by Banjo Paterson)
• Silver Brumby, Silver Dingo (1993)
• Dancing Brumby (1995)
• Brumby Stories (1995)
• Brumbies of the Night (1996)
• Dancing Brumby's Rainbow (1998)
• The Thousandth Brumby (1999)

The Man From Snowy River is a poem by Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson. ... Banjo Paterson. ...

Nonfiction

• Australia's Alps (1942)
• Speak to the Earth (1945)
• Soil and Civilization (1946)
• Images in Water (1947)
• Australian Treescapes: A photographic study (1960) (photographs by Harold Cazneaux et al.)
• Light Horse: The Story of Australia's Mounted Troops (1978)
• Chauvel Country - The story of a great Australian pioneering family (1983)
• Vision of the Snowy Mountains (1988)
• Towong Hill: Fifty Years on an Upper Murray Cattle Station (1989)

External links

• A comprehensive fansite
• Interview with Mrs Mitchell by Jeff Prentice in 1993
• Brief biographies of Elyne Mitchell and her husband Tom
• Elyne Mitchell Silver Brumby Award for Australian children's literature
• Interview by Tony Wright, 12 December 2001