Joseph Furphy wrote an Australian literary classic, Such is Life, in 1903, under the pen name of ‘Tom Collins’, slang for ‘a tall story’. With its unreliable narrator travelling the countryside and telling the stories of the people he meets along the way, the alias was certainly appropriate. 

His brother John, a blacksmith, created agricultural implements, most notably the water carts used by the AIF during the First World War. Around these carts, stories were told, legs were pulled, rumours gathered momentum, and the term ‘furphy’ became part of the Australian lexicon. 

The Furphy Literary Award was established in 1992. It became a national competition for the first time in 2020, which led to the first of the short stories being published. The Furphy Anthology 2024 features the sixteen short stories judged to be the best of the best in this year’s Award.