Limberlost

Introductory activities

Robbie Arnott is a multi-award-winning novelist living and working in lutruwita (Tasmania), and his works are indelibly marked by this setting. His decision to embed his stories in the evocative Tasmanian landscape – and to draw on the epic, mythical, and sublime – seems to him a natural choice. Arnott has previously spoken about the ‘feeling of insignificance’ one experiences in relation to nature. You can read his comments in this 2022 Book Show interview, which he gave shortly after the publication of Limberlost. This is the novel that students will explore over the course of this unit.

Reader positionality

To begin, students might consider their own positionality when it comes to Australian stories and literature. They might discuss questions such as:

• Which Australian authors can you name?
• Which Australian novels can you name?
• How many of these are from the 21st century?
• Have you studied other 21st century Australian novels for school?
• Is it more important and relevant to study texts from our own country of origin, OR from other times, places, and cultures?
• How can stories bring other times, places, and cultures to life?

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Context

Use the following activities and inquiry questions to guide students’ investigation of the novel’s context. You might like your students to investigate different topics in small groups and report their findings back to the rest of the class.

Tasmanian landscape and environment

World War II and post-war society

Masculinity

Coming of age in rural Australia

Aboriginal perspectives

NOTE: Although it is not a major plot point in Limberlost, Arnott’s work does consider the implications of colonial dispossession and the enduring connection of palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples) to lutruwita.

Author context and literary influences

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Vocabulary

There are three categories of vocabulary that students can expect to encounter and employ when reading and responding to Limberlost:

Vocabulary may be:

• explicitly taught, as part of an ongoing lesson starter activity;
• discussed as it arises within the text and when developing responses to it; OR
• documented individually by students as part of an independent reading journal.

A complete vocabulary list for Limberlost has been prepared (PDF, 64KB).

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Personal response on reading the text

Initial reading

Consider your class context and your students’ reading habits when deciding how to approach the initial reading of Limberlost. As this is a Senior Secondary unit, students could be reasonably expected to read the text before they commence classroom discussion and analysis. Some students or cohorts may require additional support to make their way through the text (e.g. through guided reading of the first few chapters, followed by independent reading targets or schedules).

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Inferential reading

Students should be encouraged to hone their inferential reading skills throughout this unit of work. They can practise by engaging with a resource like ‘What’s Going On in This Picture?’, which presents viewers with a decontextualised image from The New York Times. Students are asked to answer three questions in relation to the chosen image:

1. What is going on in this picture?
2. What do you see that makes you say that?
3. What more can you find?

This regular practise can lead to modelled and independent inferential reading.

A scaffolded activity adapted from Leon Furze (see this 2023 blog post) is a scavenger hunt that asks students to apply 10 key inferencing strategies to passages from a text. Distribute the list of strategies and ask students to apply each one to a different passage from Limberlost. For each passage they should record the strategy used, what they inferred, and the evidence from the text that led them to make that inference.

Once they are confident, students can keep track of any inferences they make while reading in a chart like the one below:

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Impressions in reading

Giving students a place to collaboratively track their reading and responses to Limberlost will assist them in bringing together ideas and evidence for later Rich Assessment Tasks. You can use a tool like OneNote Class Notebook, Padlet, or Miro to set up a platform that students can access and add to throughout their reading. They might collect plot events, quotations, or examples of text construction related to the novel’s key ideas.

Reflections on reading

Invite students to respond to the following questions:

• If you could alter any part of Limberlost, what part would it be and why?
• How do the novel’s unresolved tensions reflect broader societal or personal struggles?
• What themes in Limberlost continue to resonate in contemporary Australian culture?
• In what ways does Ned’s experience of growing up in a complex and changing world mirror your and your friends’ experiences?
• What value does a novel like Limberlost bring to readers and to society more broadly?

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Outline of key elements of the text

Plot

Limberlost is the most structurally conventional of Arnott’s novels, which (at the time of writing) also include Flames (2018), The Rain Heron (2020), and Dusk (2024). While these novels bend temporal and generic boundaries, Limberlost lays out a coming-of-age story whose key plot conceit is the shifting of time and employment of foreshadowing. Students can track these shifts using the plot tracker (PDF, 79KB). A completed version has been provided for teacher reference.

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Characters

Encourage students to keep a chart of character observations and analysis as they read. A useful format for this is the STEAL format, which captures evidence of characters’ speech, thoughts, effect on others, actions, and looks. See a sample response for Ned below. Students can complete the full STEAL chart (PDF, 82KB) to document these details for other characters.

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Themes

Limberlost has many thematic concerns, including:

• Family and relationships
• War and its impacts
• Masculinity
• Coming of age
• Connection to nature
• Guilt and redemption
• Education and class
• Isolation and loneliness
• Cycles and interconnection
• Myths and the supernatural

Group presentations may be the most efficient method of collating and communicating evidence for these ideas. You can prepare and share an exemplar, then ask students to follow the same structure and format. Each group can present their findings OR create a video/recording to play in class. Students can then individually make notes on the presentations using the theme summary handout (PDF, 58KB).

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Synthesising task

Virtual museum exhibition

Students will work together to curate a virtual exhibition on ‘The World of Limberlost’. The concept for this task corresponds with the novel’s historical focus and the significance of objects within the narrative. Each student will contribute an ‘artefact’ to the exhibition, along with an interpretive paragraph explaining its significance. Suitable artefacts might include:

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The writer’s craft

Arnott’s lyricism and attention to construction at the sentence level have earnt him deserved praise. Compared to his other novels, Limberlost is less concerned with conjuring a magical realist sensibility, yet there is still a mythical resonance and expansive scope to his writing. Arnott’s prose is rich and evocative, drawing power from the natural world and its textures, rhythms, and mysteries.

Structure

The novel’s structure is fluid and non-linear, employing both analepsis (flashbacks) and prolepsis (flashforwards) in relation to the novel’s present (when Ned West is 15). Chapters shift across decades, moving between Ned’s childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. This temporal layering allows readers to understand how the formative experiences of one summer continue to resonate across Ned’s lifetime. As details are revealed, the reader develops an increasing fondness and sympathy for Arnott’s protagonist. At its core, the narrative is propelled by one central premise: Ned’s desire to buy a boat, which becomes a symbol for the events that echo in his life for years to come.

Timeline

Drawing on the earlier Plot activity (see Initial Response > Outline of Key Elements of the Text), students can create a visual timeline of Ned’s life from childhood to adulthood, rearranging events in a linear fashion. They could do this on paper OR using a digital tool like Padlet, Canva, or Lucidchart, with colour coding to distinguish the past, present, and future as represented in the novel.

Connect-extend-challenge

Invite students to engage in a connect-extend-challenge routine in relation to the novel’s structure. You could use this as a brief exit activity to conclude this part of the unit.

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Setting

As with all of Arnott’s novels, the Tasmanian landscape is crucial to Limberlost’s atmosphere and meaning. Return to Arnott’s 2022 Book Show interview and read his comments about the ‘mythic drama’ of this setting, under the subheading ‘Modern Day Myth-Making’.

Arnott’s descriptions of orchards, rivers, and coastlines are immersive and poetic. The setting of kanamaluka (the Tamar River) distinguishes the characters and acts as the nexus of their lives’ experiences. Arnott renders the natural world with reverence and complexity, attuning readers to his eco-literary sensibility.

Sensory writing exercise

Just as Arnott draws inspiration from his direct natural environment, students may find inspiration in theirs. Ask them to compose a short descriptive piece about a place in nature. This will be more powerful if the writing can take place in situ OR with the aid of quality photographic references. Instruct students to use the five senses in their writing, creating evocative ocular, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory imagery. This might be a good opportunity to explicitly teach this Vocabulary using the previously provided list (see Initial Response > Introductory Activities).

Discussion questions

• How does the natural setting shape the mood and ideas in Limberlost?
• In what ways does the landscape reflect Ned’s emotional state at different moments?
• What significance might be drawn from nature’s simultaneous benevolence and hostility in the novel (e.g. the rescue of the quoll, the storm that drives Ned away from his expedition)?

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Approach to characterisation

In Limberlost, Arnott paints his characters with restraint and intricacy. His writing is permeated by clusters of familial connections, absent and deceased parents, complex sibling relationships, and nuanced masculinity. Ned is drawn as isolated, thoughtful, and emotionally reserved, shaped by grief, loneliness, and quiet determination. Other characters, like his father and brothers, are rendered in minimal but vivid detail, depicted through sensory impressions or symbolic association. Against a backdrop of traditional manhood, Arnott presents his characters in small moments of connection and significance, exploring masculinity with humour and sensitivity. These characters are also capable of transformation and surprise, such as the adult Jackbird, who is portrayed as an astute and respected businessman (see p. 137).

Casting couch

A popular and illuminating learning activity for delving into characters and characterisation is to ask students to cast a film version of the novel. Which contemporary actors would be best suited to portray the characters in Limberlost? A casting couch worksheet (PDF, 53KB) has been provided.

Step inside

The step inside routine is useful for assisting students to formulate a deep understanding of characters. It is based around three key questions:

1. What can the character perceive?
2. What might the character know about or believe?
3. What might the character care about?

Students could work in small groups to prepare responses for an assigned character, then form new groups to share their ideas with people who focused on different characters (similar to a jigsaw strategy).

Discussion questions

• How does Arnott use silence and small actions to reveal character attributes?
• What do Ned’s relationships with animals reveal about his inner world and personal values?

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Narrative perspective and voice

Limberlost is narrated from Ned’s limited third-person perspective. This enables readers to apprehend his internal world, fears, desires, and motivations, while maintaining some distance. The perspective is intimate and consistent, which helps to build sympathy towards and investment in Ned’s situation. The voice that opens the novel is contemplative, expansive, and somewhat elegiac. Events are narrated with warmth, and moments of mundanity are imbued with significance through the various time shifts that occur throughout the story.

Perspective rewrite

To better understand the impact of narrative voice and perspective, students can rewrite a key moment from Limberlost from an alternative character’s perspective, e.g. the first-person perspective of Jackbird or Maggie.

Circle of viewpoints

The circle of viewpoints is a useful routine for unpacking the complexities of perspective. Students will consider an idea or issue raised by the novel and how each character might view that issue. Some suggestions are outlined below. Students could also develop their own questions arising from the novel’s ideas and issues.

Discussion questions

• How does the third-person limited perspective influence readers’ empathy for Ned?
• Would the story feel different if it was told in the first person? In what ways?
• How would you describe the tone of the story? Does it shift and change at different moments?
• How does the voice contribute to the novel’s focus on ideas about grief and connection?

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Use of parallels and contrasts

Arnott employs parallels between human and non-human lives to explore vulnerability, connection, and care. For example, Ned’s relationships with animals (e.g. the rabbits, the quoll, the mythic whale, Maggie’s horse) convey the complexity of living in harmony with the natural world while relying on its resources for sustenance and wellbeing. Symbolic weight is attached to natural entities to help Arnott communicate the novel’s ideas, particularly those related to connectedness, cycles, isolation, and redemption or spiritual growth. Contrasts are also employed to evoke tension. These include:

• war and peace
• youth and age
• isolation and connection
• humans and animals
• freedom and responsibility
• containment and expression
• memory and the present
• control and vulnerability
• reality and myth

Symbol tracker

Provide students with the symbol tracker (PDF, 75KB) to help them track and reflect on the symbolic elements employed in the novel.

Discussion questions

• How do Ned’s relationships with animals reflect his emotional state more clearly than his interactions with people?
• Does Arnott suggest that living in harmony with nature requires sacrifice or compromise?
• In what ways do contrasts between freedom and responsibility play out in Ned’s life and choices?
• How does Arnott utilise the contrast between memory and the present to explore ideas of guilt and redemption?

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Language and style

Arnott’s language and style have been variously described as ‘exquisite’ (The Conversation), ‘immersive’ or ‘plaintive’ (Australian Book Review), and ‘transcendent’ (The Guardian). His writing is rich in lyricism, metaphor, and vivid sensory imagery that brings the world of the book to life (e.g. the texture of the pesticide on Callie’s skin, p. 167; the shards of the wrecked boat, pp. 209, 214). Sentences are carefully crafted, balanced with precision, and elevated in moments that the narrative demands them to be. The rhythm and equilibrium in Arnott’s prose enhances his novel’s emotional resonance and highlights his control of form.

Close reading workshop

Following the instructions in the close reading guide (PDF, 80KB), students should read and annotate an allocated passage from the novel. Suggested passages include:

Claim-support-question

Once students have completed the Close Reading Workshop, they can share their observations about Arnott’s language and style using the claim-support-question routine. To conduct this discussion, instruct students to make a claim about Arnott’s style, support it with evidence, and pose a question for further reflection or discussion. An example is outlined below:

These two activities (the Close Reading Workshop and Claim-Support-Question) will prepare students to complete the upcoming Synthesising Task.

Discussion questions

• What role does Arnott’s choice of poetic language and imagery play in shaping the novel’s atmosphere?
• How does Arnott employ metaphor to portray the depth of Ned’s emotional landscape?

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Text and meaning

Exploration of themes and ideas

Quote bank

Following on from the group presentations in the Initial Response section (Outline of Key Elements of the Text > Themes), students can collate a quote bank as evidence for each theme. They can then compose some analytical sentences and paragraphs based on these quotes. You might like to provide some sentence starters to assist them with their analysis:

• [Theme] is evident when …
• This moment reveals how [theme] is/are shaped by …
• This passage reveals …
• [Theme] is apparent when …
• Arnott challenges/endorses/questions the idea that … when…
• Through subtle gestures, Arnott explores the idea that …
• A pivotal moment in the novel that reveals [theme] is when …
• This scene illustrates that …
• Arnott uses [symbol] to communicate the idea that …

Purpose

In a 2023 Sydney Morning Herald interview, Arnott states that the magical realist element of his earlier work ‘wasn’t necessary or required’ for Limberlost. He explains that he had no specific genre or style in mind when he started writing, and added only those elements that he felt were needed to enhance the story.

As with Arnott’s previous novels, and as articulated through its epigraph, Limberlost remains firmly grounded in nature and place, considering the cyclical resonances that emerge from connection with specific landscapes. Invite students to evaluate the novel through the selection of key moments and scenes, demonstrating how they work toward the fulfilment of this purpose.

Synthesising task

Close analysis podcast

In this task, students will select a passage from Limberlost (approx. 30–50 lines) and produce a commentary and close analysis in a podcast (audio recording) format. They will consider how their selected passage contributes to an understanding of the novel as a whole. The provided task sheet (PDF, 80KB) outlines how they should go about this.

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Ways of reading the text

Literary perspectives and genre

It is possible to apply a range of theoretical perspectives and generic approaches to Limberlost, each of which will enrich students’ understanding of the narrative and lead to deeper appreciation of Arnott’s authorial purpose. Monash University has produced an excellent guide to common literary frameworks, including links for further reading.

By engaging with the ideas and activities in this section of the unit, students will uncover deeper layers of meaning, engage with the novel from multiple perspectives, and apprehend its broader cultural, historical, and environmental contexts, connecting Arnott’s novel to real-world issues like colonialism, environmental degradation, and gender roles.

Postcolonial and decolonial approaches

Limberlost is set in lutruwita, where colonisation has had devastating consequences for palawa. While the novel does not depict Aboriginal characters or instances of colonial violence, it does acknowledge the state’s history of dispossession and attempted erasure of the local Aboriginal population. This is particularly evident in Ned’s exchange with his adult daughter Sally over the name of kanamaluka (pp. 195–198), which Arnott discusses in this Bookanista interview. Ned’s difficulty in acknowledging his place in the world, and the novel’s depiction of utilitarian interactions with the environment (e.g. logging, mustering, pesticide use), reflect aspects of a colonial project and mindset that are still very much alive in Australian society – however subconscious it may be.

There is debate as to whether Australian literature may be read as postcolonial. The main contention arises from the fact that, in Australia, colonisation is ongoing because the coloniser has not departed (Wiradyuri writer Anita Heiss has explored this at length in ‘Post-Colonial – NOT!’). As such, a progression to considering Limberlost through a decolonial rather than postcolonial lens may prove thought-provoking for students.

Whereas postcolonial theory is a framework for analysing the effects of colonialism, decolonisation is the process of resisting and dismantling those effects. The following articles (from Reading Australia’s teaching resource for Meet Me at the Intersection*; see Significance > Ways of Reading the Text > Secondary Reading and Viewing > Decolonisation) will provide a starting point for students to explore this concept:

• Barayamal – What is decolonising Australia?
• The Conversation – Explainer: what is decolonisation?
• Common Ground – What is Decolonisation?

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Decolonial approaches are outlined by Dja Dja Wurrung academic Dr Aleryk Fricker in You Can Teach That: Decolonisation and Comradeship, a resource from VATE’s Teaching First Nations Perspectives series. They are also explored by Yiman and Bidjara anthropologist and geographer Marcia Langton in ‘Dangerous Fictions’, a session from the 2020 Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

Discussion questions

• In Limberlost, whose stories are told and whose are missing?
• Would it be appropriate for Arnott to attempt to tell those missing stories? Why or why not?
• Does the novel reflect, obscure, or challenge colonial legacies? In what ways?

For more information on postcolonial theory and non-Indigenous writing, see Reading Australia’s teaching resource for The Secret River* by Kate Grenville (Significance > Ways of Reading the Text > Postcolonial Reading).

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Eco-literature

The aforementioned depictions of logging, mustering, and pesticide use provide a basis for an eco-literary reading of Limberlost. Eco-literature is broadly defined by cultural theorist Jen Webb as ‘literature in which the natural world plays a major role, and where the associations and dependencies between human and natural worlds take centre stage’ (see her 2022 article for The Conversation). Through such a reading, students may come to understand Arnott’s messages about the interdependence of humans and nature, ecological responsibility, the ethics of animal welfare, and the burgeoning climate crisis. His body of work is characterised by such concerns, naturally emanating from his chosen setting of lutruwita.

Discussion questions

• How does the novel portray the tension between using and abusing nature and its resources?
• What role does nature play in Ned’s emotional development?
• By focusing on the micro (i.e. a single orchard in northern lutruwita), how does Arnott bring the macro (i.e. questions about the global environment) to light?

Australian/Tasmanian Gothic

The emotional landscape of Limberlost incorporates isolation, memories, regrets, and mythic or mysterious natural forces, all of which are characteristic of the Australian (and especially Tasmanian) Gothic genre. In this tradition, the landscape itself is depicted as a dangerous, hostile, and malevolent force, emanating from colonial fears of an unrecognisable and untameable environment; the ‘hole left in our collective conscience’ by dispossession (see the 2013 Griffith Review essay by Trawulwuy academic Greg Lehman); or perhaps a less sinister correlation between long nights, gloomy weather, and literary inspiration (see this 2018 ArtsHub article). Whatever its origin, this lens is useful for unpacking the psychological and environmental unease that is laced into Arnott’s novel. Mythological archetypes can also be explored here; students may investigate tropes like the hero’s journey, the wounded healer, or the orphaned child/absent parent dynamic.

Discussion questions

• In Limberlost, how does the landscape evoke fear, mystery, or spiritual tension?
• In what ways does the novel blur the line between realism and the supernatural?
• Which story traditions or tropes can you recognise in Limberlost? Are frameworks like the hero’s journey, the wounded healer, or the absent parent helpful in developing a richer understanding of the text?

For more information about the Australia Gothic genre, see Reading Australia’s teaching resource for Ghost Bird* by Lisa Fuller (Significance > Ways of Reading the Text).

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Gender theory

In Limberlost, Arnott presents a nuanced portrait of masculinity through the men of the West family. Ned’s marriage to the strong and determined Callie, and his interactions with their capable and outspoken daughters, provide a backdrop for exploring a range of cultural expectations. Ned’s coming of age is facilitated not by heroic acts of physical dominance or endurance, but through introspection and an acceptance of vulnerability. Later in the novel, he is encouraged to visit a doctor to help manage his mental health (pp. 211–212). Ned’s masculinity is not fixed, but shifts in relation to his contexts, relationships, and internal conflicts, in line with Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity. Through his depictions of economic precarity, physical labour, and a country at war, Arnott highlights and challenges the stoicism, emotional repression, and physical toughness that are often associated with Australian masculinity.

Discussion questions

• In what ways does Ned’s character challenge or conform to traditional notions of masculinity?
• How does Arnott employ silence and emotional restraint to communicate ideas about male identity?
• Does Limberlost offer a hopeful vision of masculinity? Why or why not?

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Comparison with other texts

Versions of the text in other modes, media, and contexts

While Limberlost is an original work of fiction, it is inspired by details and stories from Arnott’s personal family history, including an orchard of the same name (see again this Bookanista interview). The nomenclature comes from a 1909 novel called A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter, which has a number of film adaptations: 1924, 1934, 1945, and 1990.

Other texts using similar approaches or dealing with similar ideas

Humans and the non-human

Each of Arnott’s novels explores the inherent tensions in the relationship between the human and non-human: from the fire and cormorant spirits in Flames, to The Rain Heron’s namesake, to the eponymous puma in Dusk. Further examples abound in Australian and international literature, including:

• Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey, which explores 20th century conflicts and literary lives through the narrative voices of ten animals
• The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan, in which environmental loss is manifested in the slow deterioration of the human form
• Orbital by Samantha Harvey, which presents the observations of humans on the International Space Station as they make 16 orbits of the Earth over the course of a single day
• The Wall by Marlen Haushofer, which represents a woman’s isolation from humanity and her efforts to survive alone
• The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay, in which a pandemic causes its victims to understand the language of animals
• The Overstory by Richard Powers, in which the natural world runs parallel with human lives
• The Yield* by Tara June Winch, a novel that fuses the personal and the cultural, language and landscape, as a young woman returns to Country
• Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood, in which a woman’s reckoning with her own life and regrets is mirrored in the plague and desolation of the landscape that surrounds her
• Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright, which presents the inextricable connection of the human and non-human across space and time from an Aboriginal perspective

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Tasmanian literature

Tasmanian literature has emerged as a distinct sub-genre of Australian literature. Texts that are set in or significantly influenced by lutruwita include:

• For the Term of His Natural Life* by Marcus Clarke, originally published as a serialised novel documenting the penal system in Tasmania
• Deep South: Stories from Tasmania edited by Ralph Crane and Danielle Wood
• Novels by Richard Flanagan, including Gould’s Book of Fish, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, and Death of a River Guide
• The Clinking by Susie Greenhill
• Heartsease by Kate Kruimink
• The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey (NOT set in Tasmania, but shows the influence of the author’s residence there)
• Past the Shallows* by Favel Parrett
• Novels by Heather Rose, including Bruny
• Born into This by Adam Thompson
• The Roving Party by Rohan Wilson
• The Alphabet of Light and Dark by Danielle Wood

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Historical fiction of Australians’ experiences in World War II and the post-war period

• The Divine Wind* by Garry Disher
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North* by Richard Flanagan
• The Watch Tower by Elizabeth Harrower
• The Harp in the South* by Ruth Park
• The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman
• Cloudstreet* by Tim Winton

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Evaluation of the text

Awards and contemporaries

You might invite students to explore other titles that were shortlisted for the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award, as well as other awards that Limberlost has won or been nominated for, such as The Age Book of the Year, BookPeople Book of the Year, or the Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History.

Rich assessment task (receptive)

Comparing texts

Invite students to complete a comparison of Limberlost and ONE other text listed under the categories above:

• Humans and the non-human
• Tasmanian literature
• Historical fiction of Australians’ experiences in WWII and the post-war period

The task sheet (PDF, 92KB) provides instructions and a list of categories to guide discussion.

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Rich assessment task (productive)

Writing back to Limberlost: a theoretical reimagining

In this task, students will complete a reading of Limberlost using ONE of the theoretical frameworks discussed above, and produce a creative response that incorporates their findings. The response will be in two parts:

1. A creative response to Limberlost (500–600 words)
2. A reflective commentary on their decisions (200–300 words)

Students will need to research the key aspects of their chosen framework, choose a suitable moment from the novel to explore, and compose a short narrative that not only expands on the original story but furthers their theoretical reading.

Options for the creative response include:

• A missing chapter or alternative ending
• A parallel narrative from a secondary or minor character’s perspective
• A series of letters or diary entries from a character grappling with an issue suggested by the chosen theoretical framework
• A myth, fable, or allegory that furthers the chosen theoretical framework

Students should also complete a reflective commentary that articulates:

• Their chosen theoretical framework
• An explanation of how their creative choices reflect or challenge the original text
• Discussion of how the framework and the creative response deepen or alter an understanding of Limberlost

You can use the following assessment criteria:

• Student engages creatively with the setting or characters in a way that enhances or challenges the original text
• Student has understood and applied a theoretical framework
• Student has demonstrated textual understanding and intertextual awareness
• Student has completed a reflective commentary

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Synthesise core ideas

Revisiting initial responses

At this stage of the unit, students should revisit and review their Initial Response to Limberlost, including their work on Inferential Reading, Impressions in Reading, and Reflections on Reading (under Personal Response on Reading the Text). By now they should have developed detailed notes about the novel’s context, plot, characters, and themes.

The goal of consolidating this material is to prepare students to write a focused analytical response that demonstrates the depth of their understanding about Arnott’s novel.

Study summary

Allow time for students to compose an individual study summary that will help them prepare for their final task. The study summary worksheet (PDF, 82KB) will assist them to scaffold their work, particularly if they have not done this independently in the past.

Rich assessment task

The culminating task for this unit is an analytical text response essay, a common task in Senior Secondary text studies and, as such, a key skill for students to develop.

Students will be required to compose an extended analytical essay (1,000–1,200 words) in response to a given topic. They should present a structured piece of writing that responds directly to that topic. A task sheet (PDF, 80KB) and rubric (PDF, 57KB) have been provided. You may also choose to provide an essay planning template (PDF, 100KB) depending on students’ confidence and previous experience with analytical text responses.

Suggested topics for the analytical essay include:

• ‘Limberlost shows us that, to truly understand ourselves, we must also understand the people around us.’ To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• How is nature shown to be a force of both healing and harm in Limberlost?
• In Limberlost, the reader is shown the importance of family. Discuss.
• ‘Limberlost depicts the insistence of memory.’ Do you agree?
• Limberlost shows us that, in the most difficult of circumstances, there is still hope. Discuss.

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