Miles Franklin Print Page

The trees were planted by the Fellowship of Australian Writers in 1983 in memory of author Stella (Miles) Franklin (1879-1954) who resided in Grey Street, Carlton. A plaque was also unveiled at the site. 

She was also founder of the Miles Franklin award to encourage other Australian writers.

Miles Franklin was born Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin in 1879 on the grazing property, Talbingo, of her maternal grandmother near Tumut in New South Wales. She spent the early part of her life at Brindabella, the family home station in the Monaro region of New South Wales. In 1889 the family moved to a property near Goulburn, New South Wales, and then in 1903 to Penrith, and finally in 1914 to Carlton.

After the publication of My Brilliant Career in 1901, Franklin tried a career in nursing, and then as a housemaid in both Sydney and Melbourne. While cultivating her literary contacts with such writers as Joseph Furphy, Norman Lindsay and Henry Lawson she wrote as a freelance journalist for the Daily Telegraph and The Sydney Morning Herald under the pseudonyms `An Old Bachelor" and `Vernacular`. She then became involved in the early Australian feminist movement via her friendship with Rose Scott and Vida Goldstein. She died in 1954.

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