Blinky Bill, Chapter 4: Frog Hollow

Blinky decides to go adventuring again, but this time, instead of Miss Pimm and her peppermints, he finds a wombat and some frogs!

Blinky Bill was first published in 1933, and as such it contains material that might be outdated, inaccurate or offensive, as well as material that would now be considered quite dark for children’s fiction. Aside from language that Madame Magpie is personally uncomfortable using, the text has been left as it was originally published. There is no bad language, but below is a list of potentially distressing content that appears in this episode:

• Generalisations about Indigenous Australian groups and practices: "They lived up in the north-west," said Mr Wombat, "a wild place if you like! The black people there used to hunt them with yam-sticks. Poor grandad and grandma were in constant danger of being killed."
  "How?" asked Blinky.
  "Well," continued Mr Wombat, "the black people would go out in hunting parties and when a wombat-hole was found a boy was usually chosen to go down feet first. As he wriggled his way down the burrow he tapped on the roof of the tunnel with his hands. Those above the ground were listening and followed the taps as he went, until at last when the boy's feet touched a wombat, he would give a signal and then the men above would quickly dig down into the earth and right on to the wombat. A few moments and he was dead. No chance of escape at all----"
• Mentions of spanking: "That boy of yours will come to no good!" said Mrs Grunty one day. "If he was mine, I'd try a little of the stick around his hind parts."
  "What am I to do?" sighed Mrs Koala. "I can't smack him all the time. Where he gets this wild manner of his from I don't know. I believe his great-grandfather was very wild--on his father's side of course. My people were always very quiet."

Blinky Bill was written and illustrated by Dorothy Wall, first published by Angus & Robertson in 1933. Sound effects are from Zapsplat, Epidemic Sound, Pixabay, Soundly and Dylan Barfield.

All images are made by Josh Dykgraaf using Dorothy Wall's original illustrations. Madame Magpie is a creation of Alix Roberts. Narration and character voices by Alix Roberts.

Madame Magpie’s Bedtime Stories are recorded and edited by Alix Roberts (aka Madame Magpie) on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Bunarong Peoples of the Kulin nation. Madame Magpie acknowledges the rich and extensive history of storytelling among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and pays her respects to past and present elders of all nations.