Australian novelist David Ireland, winner of three Miles Franklin awards in the 1970s, and recipient of the Order of Australia in 1981, has died at the age of 94.
Born in 1927 in Lakemba, New South Wales, he wrote poetry and plays before his first novel, The Chantic Bird, appeared in 1968, the dust-flap proclaiming that Ireland “intends concentrating future efforts on the novel”. It was a good decision, for he won his first Miles Franklin Award four years later and commenced writing full-time the following year.
