E. J. Brady


E. J. Brady was an Australian journalist and poet.

Personal life

From Irish parents, Brady was born at Carcoar, New South Wales, and was educated both in the United States and Sydney. He worked as a wharf clerk, a farmer, and journalist, and edited both rural and city newspapers.
Aged 82, Brady died in 1952 at the Pambula Public Hospital of a heart condition. He was survived by his second wife, and six children from his first marriage.

Career

Brady was a friend and correspondent of Sir Edmund Barton, the first Australian prime minister, and poets Will H. Ogilvie, Roderic Quinn ), Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson. In 1910, Brady helped to save Lawson's life.
He was the editor of the Australian Workman, Sydney's first trade union newspaper, in 1891-92. The Bulletin and the Sunday Times were the repositories for many of his poems and prose.
Working at Grafton's Daily Examiner in New South Wales, Brady wrote under the pen-name Nedi Woolli. The first name was an extension of Quinn's name for Brady, and the last name being an indigenous name relating to the Yamba area. He later took over The Grip newspaper, but 'it went 'straight on the rocks' '.
Brady later established a writers' and artists' colony at Mallacoota, Victoria in 1909, and he continued to live there until his death. A passionate nationalist, he achieved his greatest fame with his book Australia Unlimited, a bestseller from its appearance in 1918, which urged dramatic increases in the national population. In 1926, a book entitled Industrial Australia was being written about the history and growth of industry within the country. His last work Two Frontiers was published in 1945. He also sought to write the biography of The Bulletin co-founder J. F. 'Archie' Archibald.
Lines from his poem Far and Wide have been used in the Melbourne tourism advertisement running on ESPN2 and Tennis Channel during the 2016, 2017, and 2018 Australian Open.

Poetry