Illywhacker was published by University of Queensland Press in 1985 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Herbert Badgery, a self-proclaimed 139-year-old conman, narrates the history of twentieth-century Australia through three generations of his family. “Illywhacker” is Australian slang for a confidence trickster — a spieler, a shell-game operator, a teller of elaborate lies — and Badgery is the quintessential illywhacker, a man whose relationship to truth is creative rather than documentary.
The novel’s thesis is that Australia itself is an illywhacker’s creation — a nation built on confidence tricks, from the convict settlement through the gold rush through the postwar immigration boom. Every generation reinvents the country, and every reinvention requires a new set of lies. Badgery’s unreliable narration is both the novel’s method and its argument.
Collecting Illywhacker
First edition (University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1985): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- Australian first edition, fine in jacket: $100–$300
- UK first edition (Faber): $50–$150
- US first edition (Harper & Row): $30–$75
Projected values (2026–2036): Strong appreciation. Carey’s most ambitious novel.
The 139-Year-Old Liar
Herbert Badgery, the narrator, claims to be 139 years old. He is an aviator, con man, snake handler, and car salesman who spans the entire twentieth century of Australian history — from the arrival of the automobile to the construction of the nation’s identity. “Illywhacker” is Australian slang for a confidence trickster, and Badgery’s unreliable narration is Carey’s metaphor for Australia itself: a nation built on stories, invention, and the confident assertion of truths that may or may not be true.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Carey engage with Australian identity? Carey’s central theme is the contested nature of Australian identity — who gets to tell the story, whose version counts, and how a colonial society invents itself. His novels rework Australian myths (Ned Kelly, the Ern Malley hoax, the convict experience) to reveal the fictions underlying national identity.