so she can retain Australian citizenship. They become an outspoken pair on the fringes of society. During a visit by Prince Charles to the area, where he is speaking about conservation, Rifkah raises the issue of Indigenous Australians, and asserts that the only way for them to save their culture is to be given amounts of good land for them to own without qualifications. The Prince is willing to listen, but the mob is angry, and they attack Pat, pushing him into the flooding river. No-one will help him, so Rifkah jumps in after him. Both of them appear to drown, but not before Rifkah notices a formation in the water which looks like Prindy's face. Composition Herbert conceived of the novel as early as 1936 and - after the publication of his first novel, Capricornia (1938) - he applied for a grant from the Commonwealth Literary Fund to write his new novel, then titled Yellow Fellow. By 1940 Herbert was struggling to make progress and Herbert continued with his career, publishing two further novels and an autobiography. In 1964, Herbert returned to the abandoned draft. He drew extensively on his own life experiences and those of interesting people he had met around Australia, especially in the Northern Territory. Herbert's interest was in portraying the stories of disadvantaged and displaced people, with an especial interest in Aboriginal Australians. His first book, Capricornia, had been deliberately released in the same year (1938) as the country's sesquicentenary, when Aboriginal groups in New South Wales held the first Day of Mourning in protest at colonialism and racist policies by the Australian government. By the 1960s, as Herbert wrote Poor Fellow My Country, Aboriginal rights were a key topic in Australia, with a 1967 referendum receiving 90.77% of the vote in favour of recognising Aboriginal Australians in the country's population (they had been excluded in the Constitution of Australia) and raise the expectations of the country as to the welfare of Aboriginal Australians. Herbert intended his novel to be a key statement on contemporary Australian politics. The novel was completed (except for the epilogue) by Boxing Day 1973. Publication Herbert refused to commit to a publisher while writing the novel, enjoying being courted by the major Australian publishing houses. Among those considered were Angus & Robertson, represented by his longtime friend and literary advisor Beatrice Deloitte Davis, whom he rejected due to growing animosity