"... Comprehensive collection of Australian lore, legends, traditions, ballads and popular sayings ... It is more than an anthology. It is the first attempt to systematically collect and annotate the whole field of Australian traditional folklore. Documentary source material has been supplied wherever it exists and this, together with oral and personal contributions, provides a rich source of reference material. The book is illustrated throughout and contains many rare contemporary prints and photographs. It is a mine of information and reference material for the student, writer or browsing reader. An assemblage of: legends, ballads, folk heroes, eccentrics, ghosts, country cures and remedies, bush cooking, toasts, bush jingles, sobriquets, mythical beasts and birds, familiar quotations, lost reefs and buried treasure, popular allusions, dreams, omens and prophecies, place names." -- Inside front cover.