A few days ago I posted about ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books for 2026, as voted by Australian readers. The ABC has now shared the books that missed out on the top 100 with the extended list.
Here are one hundred more favourite Australian novels:
Note that I have read the titles in Bold, and I have linked to my review where available. The Asterix means it was on my ballot. Double Asterix means it was on my Wishlist.
101. Julia Baird - Phosphorescence102. Peter Carey - Bliss
104. Alison Lester - Kissed by the Moon
105. Richard Flanagan - The Sound of One Hand Clapping
106. Kate Grenville - A Room Made of Leaves
107. Graeme Base - The Eleventh Hour
108. Amanda Lowrey - The Labyrinth
109. Clementine Ford - Fight Like A Girl
110. Bri Lee - Eggshell Skull
111. Heather Rose - Bruny
112. Leigh Sales - Any Ordinary Day
113. Behrouz Boochani - No Friend But the Mountains
114. Helen Garner - The Season
116. Markus Zusak - Bridge of Clay
117. Tim Winton - The Riders
118. Raimond Gaita - Romulus My Father
119. A B Banjo Paterson - Banjo Paterson's Bush Ballads
120. Nevil Shute - On the Beach
121. Kenneth Cook - Wake in Fright
122. Shirley Hazzard - The Transit of Venus
123. Dorothy Wall - The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill
124. Henry Handel Richardson - The Fortunes of Richard Mahony
125. Trent Dalton - All Our Shimmering Skies
126. Isobelle Carmody - Obernewtyn
127. David Malouf - An Imaginary Life
128. P L Travers - Mary Poppins
129. Richard Flanagan - Death of a River Guide
131. Dervla McTiernan - The Ruin
133. Mem Fox and Julie Vivas - Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
132. Robin Klein - Hating Alison Ashley
134. John Birmingham - He Died with a Felafel in His Hand
135. Meg Mason - Sorrow and Bliss
136. Richard Flangan - Gould's Book of Fish
137. Robbie Arnott - Dusk
138. Doris Pilkington and Nugi Garimara - Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence
139. Archie Roach - Tell Me Why
140. Anita Heiss - Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhurray
141. Christopher Koch - The Year of Living Dangerously
142. Timothy Conigrave - Holding the Man
143. Helen Garner - How to End a Story
144. Henry Lawson - The Drover's Wife
145. Alex Miller - Journey to the Stone Country
146. Frank Moorhouse - Grand Days *
147. Ted Prior - Grug
149. Jess Hill - See What You Made Me Do
150. Bruce Chatwin - The Songlines
151. Randolph Stow - The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea
152. Geraldine Brooks - Memorial Days
153. Jessica Anderson - Tirra Lirra by the River
154. Helen Garner - The First Stone
155. Emily Rodda - Rowan of Rin
156. Tony Birch - The White Girl
157. Hannah Kent - The Good People
158. Madeline St John - The Women in Black
159. Garry Disher - Bitter Wash Road
160. CWA - The CWA Cookery Book
161. Morris Gleitzman - Once
163. Robyn Davidson - Tracks
164. Ruth Park - Poor Man's Orange
165. Bill Gammage - The Biggest Estate on Earth
166. Lech Blaine - Australian Gospel
167. Christian White - The Wife and the Widow
168. Andrew McGahan - Praise
169. Thomas Keneally - The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
170. Peter Carey - Illywhacker
171. Charlotte McConaghy - Migrations
172. Scott Pape - The Barefoot Investor
173. Favel Parret - Past the Shallows
174. Tim Winton - Blueback
175. David Hunt - Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia
177. A J Mackinnon - The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow
178. Christos Tsolkas - Barracuda
179. Ruth Park - The Muddleheaded Wombat
180. Magda Szubanski - Reckoning
181. David Marr - Killing for Country
182. David Malouf - Fly Away Peter
183. Nicolas Day and Ken Simpson - The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia
184. Steve Toltz - A Fraction of the Whole
185. Shaun Tan - The Lost Thing
186. Amanda Hampson - The Tea Ladies
187. Henry Handel Richardson - The Getting of Wisdom
188. Robbie Arnott - Flames
189. Jennifer Down - Bodies of Light
191. Charlotte Wood - The Weekend
192. James Islington - The Will of the Many
193. Kate Morton - Homecoming
194. Donald Horne - The Lucky Country
195. Xavier Herbert - Capricornia
196. Hannah Gadsby - Ten Steps to Nanette
197. Xavier Herbert - Poor Fellow My Country
198. Randa Abdel-Fattah - Discipline
199. Christian White - The Nowhere Child
200. Kerry Greenwood - Cocaine Blues
The extended list includes many more of my favourite novels. Glad to see that Frank Moorhouse, Garry Disher and Dervla McTiernan were included. Also pleased to see Ted Prior made the list for Grug!
I will never complain about a list which contains multiple titles by Charlotte Wood, Richard Flangan, Helen Garner or Hannah Kent!
Overall, I find the top 200 a bit perplexing. I am surprised to see so many random books like the Women's Weekly Cookbook, The Barefoot Investor and The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia listed. I can see why people like them, but are they really a favourite? The list also skews to an older, whiter demographic than mainstream readers, which likely says more about the ABC Radio National audience than anything else. Many of the titles are children's books, which I suspect have been included by grandparents who have read these on repeat to their kin. It would be interesting to see a demographic breakdown of voters.