On Our Selection

Steele Rudd was the pseudonym of Arthur Hoey Davis (1868 -1935) an Australian author best known for On Our Selection. At 15 he became a junior stockrider on a station on the Darling Downs. In 1889 he worked in the sheriff's office and in his spare time took up rowing. When he began writing a column on rowing in a weekly paper he chose the pseudonym Steele Rudder, the first name from the English essayist Richard Steele, the second chosen because he wanted to bring into his name some part of a boat. On Our Selection first appeared as a sketch about Rudd's father's experiences. He later expanded this to 26 sketches which formed the book On Our Selection. Sketches include Starting the selection, Our first harvest, Before we got the deeds, When the wolf was at the door, The night we watched for wallabies, Good old Bess, Cranky Jack, A kangaroo hunt from shingle hut, Dave's snakebite, Dad and the Donovans, A splendid year for corn, Kate's wedding, The summer Old Bob died, When Dan came home, Our circus, When Joe was in charge, dad's "fortune", We embark in the bear industry, Nell and Ned, The cow we bought, The parson and the scone, Callaghan's colt, The agricultural reporter, A lady at shingle hut, The man with the bear-skin cap, and Christmas.