“Today on Dr Phil” by Tom Cho

it gets extra points for being just 3 pages long.

Too many possibilities. These are some of the more obvious. ‘Do You Love Me?’ – Peter Carey ‘The Owl Bander’ – Janette Turner Hospital ‘Darling Odile’ – Beverley Farmer ‘Summer in Sydney’ – Barbara Brooks ‘The Battle of Acosta Nu’ – Gerald Murnane ‘ The Chance’ – Peter Carey

“Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice”, by Nam Le. Anything by Barbara Baynton.

‘Music for Airports’, Patrick Holland. Exquisite! Or ‘The Source of the Silence’, both from ‘The Source of the Sound’

‘The Christmas Parcel’ by Olga Masters. One of the great Australian short stories of the 20th century. Or at all, really.

Problems with a Girl & a Unicorn by Nick Earls. I’ll have a think and be back with some more.

That’s tough, it’s easy to pick the authors that should be included, but then you have to pick their best story.

My votes: Barbara Baynton – Squeaker’s Mate Henry Lawson – The Drover’s Wife (or possibly The Bush Undertaker) Janette Turner Hospital – You Gave Me Hyacinths, or The Second Coming of Come-by-Chance, or perhaps something from Forecast: Turbulence

Does “Alive in Ant & Bee” by Gillian Mears count? It’s really more of an essay, but so good…

“American Dreams” by Peter Carey. Timeless.

Anything by Barbara Baynton or Elizabeth Jolley (if she counts…please let her count).

‘the Persimmon Tree’ by Marjorie Barnard.

Of course Elizabeth Jolley counts! How can she not. How about Five acre virgin. And I agree with Julieanne re The persimmon tree. Anything from that book but why not go with the title story.

So many good Aussie short story writers, past and present. What about Malouf?

Ryan O'Neill-The Eunuch in the Harem David Malouf-The Valley of Lagoons Baynton-The Chosen Vessel

I’m back with a few more suggestions. Katherine Susannah Prichard’s “Happiness”, and Thea Astley’s “Heart Is Where the Home Is”.

I agree that there should be some Malouf as well.

Don’t just suggest authors guys! We need actual stories for them to be included (as you say Daniel, this is much more challenging).

This is an awesome idea! Here are some suggestions- ‘The Chosen Vessel’ by Barbara Baynton ‘Water them Geraniums’ by Henry Lawson ‘Reconstruction of an Event’ by Glenda Adams ‘Dust’ by Patrick Cullen ‘Boy Blue’ by Gerald Murnane ‘The annual conference of 1930 and Southncoast Dada’ by Frank Moorhouse ‘Grasshoppers’ by Elizabeth Jolley ‘Portrait of Electricity’ by Murray Bail ‘A patron of the arts’ by Kerryn Goldsworthy ‘The booster shot’ by Peter Goldsworthy

I could go in forever, but I’ll stop there!

Can’t help myself- here are a few more. ‘The lottery’ ‘American dreams’ do you love me?‘ By Peter Carey. 'ABCDEF…’ By Murray Bail. ‘Squeaker’s mate’ by barbara Baynton. ‘Tell him about the turkey, Jo’ by Alan Marshall. ‘Hunting the wild pineapple’ by Thea Astley. ‘Party’ by Peter Cowan.

This is perhaps an unlikely one, but Gail Jones' short story, ‘Snow’ in ‘Fetish Lives’ is one of my favourites.

‘Suitable for a Lampshade’ by Josephine Rowe. Perfection.

Oh, Jo’s title reminded me of another favourite Jolley short story “Woman in a lampshade” (which I think was once adapted to film/TV with Ruth Cracknell playing the woman but I may have that wrong.

There are lots and lots of great Australian short stories, but for me Elizabeth Jolley’s Five Acre Virgin is possibly the most perfect short story I have ever read.

Collections? ‘Tarcutta Wake’ Josephine Rowe; ‘Black Juice’ Margo Lanagan; ‘Dark Roots’ Cate Kennedy; ‘Other Stories’ Wayne Macauley. All AMAZING.

I’m going to be a little iconoclastic here, and champion a small constellation of contemporary works by some recent Australian literary innovators (it’ll perhaps work towards dislocating the conventional canonising impulse):

Both “Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice” and “Halflead Bay” by Nam Le; “All the Rivers in the World” and “The Carpenter Who Looked like a Boxer” by John Murray; “The Bridge” and “The Man Who Invented Television” by Wayne Macauley; “Music for Airports” by Patrick Holland; “The Bodyguard” by Tom Cho; “Beautiful Useful Things” by Eric Yoshiaki Dando; “Brief Moments of Interruption” and “Beckett & Son” by A.S. Patrić; “Slow and Pink and Gone” by Sean M. Whelan; “Half-Days” and “Gardening Gloves” by Ben Schroeder; “The Casual Stroll To The Top” by Jeremy Balius; “Flared Rhino, Dust” and “Chainsaw” by Bryce Wolfgang Joiner.

I know I’m conspicuously doubling up here, but I’m nonetheless compelled to weigh in and mention that a particularly triumphal edition of “Overland” magazine — issue #197 — introduced me to the writers Shane Strange and Dave McLaren whose arresting short fiction have continued to seize my insides whenever I’ve stumbled across their work in likeminded lit. publications.

You should all do yourself the favour of reading Strange’s musically-rendered and brain-haunting “Eight rules for making fire” online at “Verity La” to reinforce my point: http://verityla.com/eight-rules-for-making-fire-shane-strange/

Okay, I think I can slink away now having compiled a sufficiently satisfying list. Can’t wait to gauge the final Tournament shortlist.