12 Facts About D'Arcy Niland

D'Arcy Francis Niland was an Australian farm labourer, novelist and short story writer.

D'Arcy Niland died on 29 March 1967 of a myocardial infarction, aged 49.

D'Arcy Niland was born Darcy Francis Niland on 20 October 1917 in the rural town of Glen Innes, New South Wales.

D'Arcy Niland was the eldest of six children in the Irish-Catholic family.

D'Arcy Niland attended the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart school in Glen Innes.

D'Arcy Niland left school at 14 and two years later he briefly worked in Sydney as a copy boy for The Sun newspaper, hoping to become a reporter.

On 11 May 1942 D'Arcy Niland married New Zealand-born journalist and fellow author, Rosina Ruth Park.

Between 1949 and 1952, D'Arcy Niland won many prizes for his short stories and novels and, three years later, achieved international fame with the novel The Shiralee.

D'Arcy Niland wrote radio and television plays, and hundreds of short stories, some of which were collected and published in four volumes from 1961 to 1966.

D'Arcy Niland compiled a collection of Australian folk songs, releasing them under the title Travelling songs of old Australia.

D'Arcy Niland completed his research into the life of Les Darcy, releasing it in the form of a biography, Home Before Dark, that was written with her son-in-law Rafe Champion.

D'Arcy Niland was burdened with a chronic heart condition, and he died at the age of 49.