David Ireland

David Ireland was born in Lakemba in south-west Sydney in New South Wales in 1927. Before taking up full-time writing in 1973, he undertook the classic writer's apprenticeship by working in a variety of jobs, ranging from greenskeeper to an extended period in the Siverwater oil refinery, on the river downstream of Parramatta. This latter job inspired his second (and best-known) novel, The Unknown Industrial Prisoner, which brought him recognition in the early 1970s. It is still considered by many critics to be one of the best and most original Australian novels of the period. Ireland became a full time writer in his late 40s, and was a prolific novelist from the 1970s to the 1980s, winning the Miles Franklin Award three times (1971, 1976 and 1979). He is one of only four Australian writers to win the Award more than twice. In 1978, Film Australia offered government funding for a movie of The Unknown Industrial Prisoner. Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser's Home Affairs Minister, Bob Ellicott, intervened to stop this. This was seen as unwelcome political interference in a small but growing Australian film industry. The Glass Canoe was set as a NSW high-school text in 1982, but this attracted complaints.