In 1866 the Journal [The Australian Journal] carried its first, and only, male romance, “The Adventures of a Squatter” by Donald Cameron(6 October–29 December 1866).
Cameron’s serial ran for thirteen instalments – twenty-nine chapters, roughly 50,000 words. It is a seemingly straightforward new-chum yarn. Two male cousins, Harry and Edward, leave the United Kingdom and come to Australia to make their fortunes. Harry arrives first and becomes involved with a beautiful, immoral singer. When Edward arrives, he is shocked to discover Harry is living with a woman. He is upset by Harry’s cool attitude to him. Edward’s disapproval incites Harry’s lover and she makes a pass at him. He rejects her outright. When Harry finds out about her duplicity, he is shocked, spurns civilised life and turns to bushranging. He is shot during one of his gang’s raids. Edward realising Harry is hurt, searches for him, finds him, and nurses him back to health. The story ends with the two of them living together on Edward’s property. (131)
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The first indication that “The Adventures of a Squatter” is not a typical new-chum yarn is the hyperbolic language. The meeting between Edward and Harry matches any romantic male/female first encounter. Edward falls in love with his aristocratic cousin upon first sight. (131-132)
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I have read all sixty-four Australian Journal serials until 1899, and “The Adventures of a Squatter” is not of the same ilk as the other romantic male/male attachments in the stories the Journal published (with the exception of Marcus Clarke’s “His Natural Life” 1870 –1872). The consistent romantic gaze, the intimacy between the two men, the adherence to the eight elements of the romance novel, and the happily-ever-after conclusion is at odds with the other highly romantic stories published in the Journal. The story also goes beyond the homosocial limits of Sir Walter Scott, Alexandre Dumas and James Fenimore Cooper – authors of the most typical romantic male adventures. Still there is an enthusiastic homoeroticism in the tale and, perhaps most tellingly, is its outright rejection of females. (139)
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