Xavier Herbert

Xavier Herbert (born Alfred Jackson, 1901-1984) was an Australian novelist born in Geraldton, Western Australia. Best known for his Miles Franklin Award-winning epic Poor Fellow My Country (1975), the longest Australian novel, and Capricornia (1938), which critiqued treatment of Indigenous Australians based on his time as Protector of Aborigines in Darwin. His career spanned novels, short stories, and autobiography, marked by outspoken advocacy for Aboriginal rights despite personal controversies.