'Caterpillars of the Commonwealth': Dangerous Books in Australia

'"Caterpillars of the Commonwealth": Dangerous Books in Australia' examines a very particular time in Australia’s history of literature and reading, during the 1970s, when protecting ‘community standards’ was paramount: ‘Q is for Queensland where the reaction is'. Small but highly vocal groups in the community challenged the reading and study of literature: they thought certain books should be banned from educational libraries, by government censors, and from the English curriculum. This is a study that brings together the concerns of these minority pressure groups as well as an examination of the way in which these groups were successful in making their protest heard enough to influence public discourse. It does so in keeping with the publication trends of the day and in the style or form in which these groups published their views – in newsletters and pamphlets made up of bits and pieces of interest and notes threaded together in ‘toggle and weave.’