Rex Ingamells's name is synonymous with the Jindyworobak movement. Jindyworobak symbolizes the "distinctive Australian quality in literature." He was the founder and chief polemicist of the movement throughout its relatively brief life, which spanned the twenty years from 1935 to 1955. He also produced the manifesto of the movement--although he was later aided in revising it by others--and fought unremittingly to see it applied. Through his enthusiasm he gathered around him a group of like-minded poets, whose work appeared in annual anthologies. How many of these poets shared his passions is difficult to say: many poets who published under the Jindyworobak banner subsequently drifted away from the movement. Although Ingamells continued to promote the movement, by the time the last Jindyworobak Anthology appeared in 1955 the heat had dissipated.

Reginald Charles "Rex" Ingamells was born on 19 January 1913 at Orrorro, in the midnorth of South Australia. He was the eldest of the...