Picture book world cup - Australia

I'm looking for picture books about/from Australia

In the run up to this year' Football (Soccer) World Cup in South Africa I intend to take a journey on my blog through all the countries involved in the cup, highlighting kids' fiction from or about each country. To this end I'm looking for:

(1) recommendations of English language books about / set in the various countries. Ideally I'm after picture books, but I'll consider other sorts of books (eg non fiction, poetry, chapter books etc).

(2) information about what books are popular with kids in the given country - so these (I imagine) will be in the language(s) of the country in question and quite possibily not translated into English. Again, I'm primarily interested in books for children under 10, but will happily learn about books for older children too.

In the month before the world cup starts I'll be posting about one country and its kidlit per day (so that there should be time for readers of my blog to get hold of any books before the world cup actually kicks off, should they so wish). I hope that this series might introduce some new children's literature to me and to my readers, and (just perhaps) Mums and Dads (or Granddads, Uncles etc) might share time reading together as well as watching the football in June and July!

If you could help me with Australian picture books and some info on the current situation with Children's literature in Australia I'd be most grateful.

Thanks in anticipation,

Zoe

My kids are all grown up now, bless 'em, so I'm a long time out of Australian kidlit.

When they were little they did love Possum Magic by Mem Fox though.

When I first arrived in Australia as a 5-year old (in the early 70's) I was taken to see a stage adaptation of The Magic Pudding and instantly fell in love with it. Rather zany, but very entertaining! At the time, I also enjoyed the books Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and Blinky Bill.

I don't have kids so I'm not up on the current situation with children's literature in Australia, other than an awareness of authors such as Jackie French and Mem Fox (as Jim mentioned) :)

Diary of a Wombat would have to be my choice of Jackie French's work.

Thanks justjim, digifish_books and wookiebender for your suggestions :-)

Possum Magic, Diary of a Wombat and The Magic Pudding are all wonderful. I'd recommend Ron Brooks & Margaret Wild's Fox.
If you're interested in current books you could have a look at the shortlist for the Children's Book Council Book of the Year Awards at http://cbca.org.au/shortlist.htm, or the recently announced shortlist for the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards at http://www.pla.nsw.gov.au/awards-shortlists/patricia-wrightson-prize-for-childre....

My kids are 5, 8, 10. Two books that they still enjoy, even though we have been reading them for years are Wombat Stew and Edward the Emu.

Hi Shawjonathan, thanks for the tip about current book awards - definitely useful

Hi bookhobbyjapan - thanks for these two titles - they certainly sound Australian!

"Are we there yet?" by well known Australian author and illustrator Alison Lester is a fantastic picture book that charts a family's journey around Australia.
Boobook Owl

All the Graeme Base books are terrific. The earliest (I think), not as colourful but the most Australian in flavour, is My grandma lived in Gooligulch.