Must Read Australian Gothic Books

Picnic at Hanging Rock Joan Lindsay

The book that defines the Australian Gothic genre. Set on Valentine's Day in the year 1900, this eerie novel follows a teacher and three schoolgirls who set out for a summer picnic in the Australian bush.

In the sweltering heat of the afternoon sun, the three girls climb up, up, up through the scrub—and disappear.

Evoking horror through atmospheric tension and unanswered questions, Joan Lindsay's haunting novel has been giving readers goosebumps for half a century.

Wake in Fright: Text Classics Kenneth Cook

Set in the outback mining town of Bundanyabba, Wake in Fright follows schoolteacher John Grant into an alcoholic, spiritual and sexual nightmare as he tries to escape remote Australia to his Sydney summer holiday plans.

A distinctly Australian horror story, Kenneth Cook peels away the veneer of the idyllic sunburnt country, revealing the sinister, alcohol-soaked and dusty truths that lie beneath. 

Bush Studies: Text Classics Barbara Baynton

A gothic short story collection first published in 1902, Bush Studies is a stark picture of remote Australian life.

Rather than romanticising the outback, Baynton reveals its bleakness and harshness, evoking the dangerous and isolating environment of the bush for the women who live there.

Gripping and horrifying, and now with an introduction from Helen Garner, Baynton's work is a dark examination of women's lives in the early colonial Australian outback.

The Watch Tower: Text Classics Elizabeth Harrower

With the pace and tension of a psychological thriller, The Watch Tower follows two sisters in 1940s Sydney who, abandoned by their narcissistic mother, find themselves under the care and attention of an older man.

Suffocating and relentless, Elizabeth Harrower's novel examines the lives of women during and after WW2, looking behind the closed doors of suburban Australian life.

To the Islands: Text Classics Randolph Stow

Set in the desolate outback of Australia's north-west, Randolph Stow's protagonist Heriot, an Anglican missionary, wanders into the wilderness after committing a horrifying act of violence against an Aboriginal man.

He is seeking the islands of the dead that, according to some Aboriginal beliefs, lie in the ocean. Wracked with guilt and on a quest to die, Heriot reflects on the excruciating truths of colonial Australia.

Flames Robbie Arnott

While Flames may not be a typical entry into the Australian Gothic genre, it still draws heavily on elements of gothic horror alongside magical realism, evoking the Tasmanian landscape with agency and a sense of the unsettling unknown.

A mother returns home two days after her ashes are spread in the bush, changed. A water rat swims upriver in quest of the cloud god. A fisherman named Karl hunts for tuna in partnership with a seal. And a father takes form from fire.

Through interlinked yet distinct chapters, Flames explores themes of grief, family and obsession with a uniquely Australian voice.