Elyne Mitchell

Author of the 'Silver Brumby' books

Sybil Elyne Chauvel, writer and environmentalist: born Melbourne, Victoria 12 December 1913; OAM 1988; married 1935 Tom Mitchell (died 1984; one son, two daughters, and one son deceased); died Corryong, Victoria 5 March 2002.

Famed as a horsewoman, skiier and environmentalist, Elyne Mitchell was best known as a children's author, in particular of The Silver Brumby (1958) and its many sequels. More popular with young readers than with those adult critics who objected to the occasional over-exuberance of her imagery, she mixed accurate observation of the Australian Snowy Mountains range with a romantic imagination that allowed her heroic horse characters to talk freely among themselves and to any other bush animal that happened to be passing. She was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1988, and personified the physical toughness and enterprise still called for in the remoter areas of the country she loved so well.

Born Elyne Chauvel in Melbourne in 1913, she was the daughter of General Sir Harry Chauvel, hero of the battle of Beersheba in 1917, where in the shadows of the Judaean hills 34,000 horsemen and cameleers – possibly the largest force of mounted troops since the time of Alexander the Great – took part in one of the last cavalry charges in history. Very much her father's daughter, Elyne soon learned to ride as well, remaining devoted to horses for the rest of her life.

Her early marriage to Tom Mitchell, later to become attorney-general of Victoria, also led to the beginning of her love affair with the Australian countryside, with the couple in 1935 settling in a house three hours' hard drive down a dirt track. Exploring the local mountains with her husband for days on end led to Elyne Mitchell's developing the expertise that allowed her to win the Canadian downhill skiing championship in 1938.

Elyne was left on her own when Tom joined the Imperial Force at the beginning of the Second World War, and she learned how to muster cattle and handle sheep. She also started writing, producing Australia's Alps in 1942, which included photographs of her home scenery and its resident wild horses, known in Australian slang as brumbies. But it took another 16 years for her to incorporate these animals into The Silver Brumby, written to entertain her daughter Indi after she had become bored by the other children's books at her disposal.

Initially refused by six publishers, The Silver Brumby became an instant best-seller on publication in 1958 and has never been out of print since. It tells the story of Thowra, a beautiful white stallion who roams the countryside free of human dominance until he encounters The Man, a loner obsessed with taming the horse once and for all.

Russell Crowe later acted this enigmatic character in the 1993 film version. Only allowed around 100 words of dialogue and, as the local paper observed at the time, "bridling" at the suggestion that taking on this part was an attempt to return to respectability after the excesses of his previous film Romper Stomper, Crowe was unable to save the movie, which went straight to video in the United States. But Mitchell's 12 sequels to the story itself continued to sell well and were widely translated, eventually leading to a cartoon series.

Many other books also appeared, including several adult titles as well as a history of the Australian Light Horse and an autobiography, Chauvel Country (1983), which takes Mitchell's story up to 1945.

After the death in 1984 of her husband, Mitchell continued to live at Towong Hill in a vast Federation-style house overlooking the place where the Swampy Plains and Indi rivers join to form the Murray river, and remained as active as ever, skiing to the age of 77 and playing tennis into her eighties. Author of two studies in 1945 of the problems of soil conservation, she remained much in demand for comments on environmental issues.

Despite an operation for a brain tumour and her increasingly frailty, she continued riding her palomino pony until only three months ago, still driving out from her care home most days to Towong Hill in order to enjoy the plants, birds and wild life she had chronicled with such affection and imaginative flair over the 60 years of her writing career.

Nicholas Tucker