The Yellow Wave

Map of Queensland, frontispiece to The Yellow Wave

Unlike the titles highlighted earlier, which tended to be pamphlets or small books, The Yellow Wave – A Romance of the Asiatic Invasion of Australia is a novel of substantial size. Its 435 pages relate a story which is much more complex than those of the earlier works. As well as the invasion of Australia by ‘Mongol hordes’, it includes a love story, international and domestic spies, ocean travel and intrigue.

Written by soldier and politician Kenneth Mackay (1859-1935) in 1895, it was a significant novel in the tradition of invasion literature. Like other works of the genre, it raised awareness of the ever-present possibility of invasion and echoed concerns of the era.

Interestingly, The Yellow Wave begins with a dedication to the late George Ranken, a friend of Kenneth Mackay’s, who was the author of the 1877 book The Invasion written under the nom de plume W. H. Walker. The book also contains an illustration of one of the battles as well as a fold-out map of Queensland to enable the reader to better visualise the events of the novel.