In October 2025, ABC Radio National presented a countdown celebrating the top 100 books of the 21st century, as chosen by popular vote. Among the finalists were 36 books by Australian authors, including Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton in the number one spot. Boy Swallows Universe was adapted into a best-selling stage adaptation in 2021 and a Netflix miniseries in 2024, bringing the Australian story to wider audiences.
After the success of this first countdown, ABC Radio National announced 2026’s Top 100 Books Countdown in May, this time with a focus on Australian books. Voting opens on 31 August at 8am and closes just before midnight on 1 October, leaving just over a month for you to vote once for up to 10 books that you consider worthy of the list. To aid in your selection, and as collectors of Australian books ourselves, we at the PMI Library are posting a few lists highlighting various categories of potential contenders, as all genres and time periods are eligible.
As adaptations can often be a mark of quality and lasting impact, our first blog post focuses on Australian books that have been transformed for stage or screen. All the books and adaptations mentioned below are in the PMI Library’s collections, so don’t forget to drop by and check them out if any catch your eye.
Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta is a 1992 coming-of-age novel told from the first-person perspective of teenager Josephine “Josie” Alibrandi, who is juggling the pressures of her final year at a prestigious Catholic girls’ school in Sydney with her Italian heritage, romantic entanglements, class differences, meetings with her estranged father and personal growth. In 2000, it was adapted into a film starring Pia Miranda: Looking for Alibrandi.
The Harp in the South by Ruth Park is a debut novel that was originally published in instalments in the Sydney Morning Herald. It is a family saga that depicts the life of the Darcy family, who are poor Catholic Irish Australians surviving in Surry Hills, an inner-city Sydney suburb. Among other versions, it was adapted for television in the form of a 1987 miniseries: The Harp in the South.
My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin, also a debut novel, depicts the life of the semi-autobiographical Sybylla Melvin as she grows up in rural Australia in the 1890s and faces challenges and choices typical for a woman of her upbringing, including financial struggles, societal constraints and the tension between career ambitions and romance. My Brilliant Career has been adapted several times, including the 1979 film My Brilliant Career starring Judy Davis and the recently departed Sam Neill and a new musical that toured Australia earlier this year: My Brilliant Career.
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough is a 1977 novel that is Australia’s best-selling book of all time. Also a family saga, it is set on a sheep station and focuses on the Cleary family from 1915 to 1969 – especially Meggie, who harbours an enduring, forbidden love for Ralph, a Catholic priest. In 1983, it was adapted into a massively successful miniseries that was nominated for 16 Emmys and won six: The Thorn Birds.
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay is certainly an Australian classic. Set in Victoria at the turn of the 20th century, it is about three girls and a teacher from a girls’ boarding school who vanish on a school picnic to Hanging Rock. The subsequent fallout occupies the rest of the novel, which ends without a clear solution for the mystery. A hallmark of the Australian Gothic subgenre and notable for its evocative, dreamlike narrative, Picnic at Hanging Rock’s 1975 film adaptation by Peter Weir was once voted the best Australian move of all time: Picnic at Hanging Rock.
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas is a 2008 novel that depicts the fallout of a barbecue in suburban Melbourne when a man slaps a child who is not his own. Told through the third-person perspectives of eight different characters, The Slap explores themes of class, social codes, multiculturalism, identity, discipline, family versus friendships, loyalty and ethical issues. It has been adapted into a 2011 television miniseries: The Slap.
The Secret River by Kate Grenville is a historical novel about William Thornhill, an English bargeman who is deported to New South Wales in 1806 for stealing a load of wood. While his wife, Sal, works hard with the goal of returning to England, William is transfixed by the allure of the life he has been building in Australia and the chance for personal ownership of land. However, he encounters Aboriginal people living in the area, and each interaction furthers the divide between the two groups of inhabitants. The Secret River was number 20 of ABC Radio National’s Top 100 Books of the 21st Century and has a two-part miniseries that first aired in 2015: The Secret River.
Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe is a nonfiction book that challenges previously accepted accounts of Aboriginal people in Australia, arguing that pre-colonial Aboriginal society used agriculture, aquaculture, dams, fish traps and other permanent fixtures and innovations that contradict the prevailing hunter-gatherer narrative. Among other adaptations, Dark Emu has been turned into a feature-length documentary: The Dark Emu Story.
The Dry by Jane Harper is a bestselling 2016 crime novel that follows Australian Federal Police agent Aaron Falk as he returns to his country hometown of Kiewarra for the funeral of his childhood best friend, Luke Hadler, who is believed to have murdered his own wife and son (leaving his infant daughter alive) before killing himself. However, there is doubt whether this narrative is accurate or if a third party was involved, and Falk’s investigation over the course of the novel reveals just how closely these recent events are entangled with the suspicious death of his and Luke’s childhood friend, Ellie Deacon, twenty years before. In 2023, The Dry was adapted into a film starring Eric Bana: The Dry.
Monkey Grip by Helen Garner is about Nora, a single mother living with her daughter in various share-houses who becomes repeatedly and destructively entwined with Javo, a heroin addict. Set in 1970s Melbourne and later acknowledged by Garner as semi-autobiographical, Monkey Grip is tumultuous, candid, unconventional and emotionally complex, relating events and circumstances without a clear resolution or narrative arc. Helen Garner also co-wrote the screenplay for the 1982 film adaptation: Monkey Grip.
My Brother Jack by George Johnston is part of a semi-autobiographical trilogy starring David Meredith. In this first book, which covers his childhood, adolescence and career beginnings in post-WWI Melbourne, David is also characterised by his relationship with his older brother, Jack, whose archetype of the typical Australian man contrasts with David’s own unassuming intellectual strengths. As the boys grow up and David becomes a successful journalist during the Great Depression and the subsequent war, the dynamic between the brothers changes, affected by differences in career, relationships, status and affluence. My Brother Jack was adapted into miniseries in both 1965 and 2001, and the latter is available from the PMI Library: My Brother Jack.
Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett is a 2011 novel set in southern Tasmania and focusing on Harry, the youngest of three brothers growing up with their abusive and volatile father, an abalone fisherman. Afflicted by sea sickness, Harry is left alone while his father and older brother Miles go out on the water. Meanwhile, Miles is torn between his teenage yearning for escape and his need to take care of Harry. A poignant tragedy that depicts brotherhood, youthful fragility and the impacts of trauma and abuse, Past the Shadows was adapted into a play in 2022: Past the Shallows.
For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke is a Victorian-era convict novel about a young aristocrat named Rufus Dawes, who is shipped to Tasmania following a wrongful conviction. The story follows Dawes as he adapts to life in a penal colony and deals with brutality and injustice. Considered one of the first examples of Tasmanian Gothic literature, For the Term of His Natural Life has been adapted several times, including into a 1983 miniseries: For the Term of His Natural Life.
Are there any other Australian books with adaptations that you would include in your list of the Top 100 Australian Books of All Time? Let us know what we missed, and keep an eye out for the next instalment in this blog series!
Written by library volunteer Susannah Cosham.