The Dawn and Dusk Club was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n bohemian

Bohemianism

Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...

 club of writer friends from the late 19th century who met for drinks and camaraderie. Writer Henry Lawson

Henry Lawson

Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...

 was a prominent member of the club.

History

The club was formed around 1898 in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 by poet Victor Daley

Victor Daley

Victor James William Patrick Daley was an Australian poet.He was born at the Navan, County Armagh, Ireland, and was educated at the Christian Brothers at Devonport in England. He arrived in Australia in 1878, and became a freelance journalist and writer in both Melbourne and Sydney...

. Foundation members of 'the Duskers', a small and exclusive group of friends were Daley, Fred J. Broomfield

Fred J. Broomfield

Fred J Broomfield was English-born Australian writer, friend of Australian writer Henry Lawson and prominent co-member with him of the Dawn and Dusk Club which formed around poet Victor Daley; some meetings were held in his Darlinghurst home...

, James Philp

James Philp

James Philp was Scottish-born Australian journalist and author, the one who drafted the rules of the Dawn and Dusk Club of which Australian writer Henry Lawson was a prominent member. After writing for New Zealand newspapers, in Sydney in 1888 he founded Australia's first Chinese newspaper, later...

, Herbert Low (journalist), William Bede Melville (a reporter for the Sydney newspaper, The Star), Bertram Stevens

Bertram Stevens (critic)

Bertram William Mathyson Francis Stevens was Australian journal editor literary and art critic, anthologist .Stevens was born at Inverell, New South...

 and Randolph Bedford

Randolph Bedford

Randolph Bedford was an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer and Queensland state politician.-Early life:...

.

The club met at Broomfield's home on the corner of Ice Road and Great Barcom Street, Darlinghurst, near St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney

St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney

St Vincent's Public Hospital, Sydney is located in the inner city suburb of Darlinghurst. Though part of the New South Wales state public health system it remains under the auspices of the Sisters of Charity.-History:...

 about September, 1898. Daley was elected 'Symposiarch' of the Duskers and the seven 'heptarchs' were Lawson, Stevens, Nelson Illingworth

Nelson Illingworth

Nelson William Illingworth was an English sculptor and colourful bohemian.Illingworth was born in Portsmouth, England, son of Thomas Illingworth, plasterer, and his wife Sarah, née Harvey. He studied at the Lambeth art school and worked as a modeller at the Royal Doulton potteries...

, Frank P. Mahony

Frank P. Mahony

Francis P. Mahony, also known as Frank Mahony, was an Australian artist and member of the Dawn and Dusk Club.Although christened "Francis Mahony", he later added 'Prout' and usually signed his work 'Frank P...

, George Augustine Taylor

George Augustine Taylor

George Augustine Taylor was an Australian artist, journalist, and inventor.- Life :Taylor was born at Sydney in 1872. He first became known as an artist, and was a member of the Sydney Bohemian set in the 1890s, whose doings he was afterwards to record in his Those Were the Days, a volume of...

, Con Lindsay (journalist), and Philp, who drafted the rules. Artist Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Alfred William Lindsay was an Australian artist, sculptor, writer, editorial cartoonist, scale modeler, and boxer. He was born in Creswick, Victoria....

 was also a member. Truth magazine publisher John Norton

John Norton

John Norton may refer to:*John Norton, 5th Baron Grantley , British peer and numismatist*John Norton , Victorian Gothic revivalist, remodelled Tyntesfield*John Norton , Olympic medalist...

called them "a band of boozy, bar-bumming bards".