The Ice Is Coming
1977 novel by Patricia Wrightson
The Ice is Coming (1977) is a novel for children by Australian author Patricia Wrightson. It was originally published in Australia by Hutchinson.
This novel is the first in the author's The Book of Wirrun series for young readers. It was followed by The Dark Bright Water (1978) and Behind the Wind (1981).
It won the Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers in 1978.
Plot outline
A city-bred Aboriginal boy, Wirrun, comes to the conclusion that the Ninya, central Australian ice-spirits, are sweeping across northern Australia. It appears their aim is to cover the whole of the Australian continent, defeating the oldest Nargun, and initiating another ice-age. Accompanied by Mimi, and aided by a talisman of the Aboriginal people, Wirrun sets off to defeat the Ninya.
Critical reception
In The Canberra Times reviewer Malcolm Pettigrove commented that "In moving from the simpler to the
more complex creatures, and in multiplying their number as she does in this book, Mrs Wrightson strengthens her mythology so as to make it virtually unassailable."
Writing about Wrightson's books for children, critic Walter McVitty noted that the book can "be read as an adventure story, in the high-fantasy tradition, about a hero's race to thwart the malevolent forces."
Ernest Hogan reviewed The Ice Is Coming for Different Worlds magazine and stated that "Patricia Wrightson has opened up a different world for us.
“The Ice Is Coming” enters the record as 1977 novel by Patricia Wrightson. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Coming, novel and Patricia can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“The Ice Is Coming” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Coming, novel and Patricia provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q131455581. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1977, 1978 and 1981.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Ice Is Coming”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Ice Is Coming primary sources, The Ice Is Coming archive and Coming research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “The Ice Is Coming” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.