1897 in Australian literature

• Guy Boothby
  • The Fascination of the King
  • The Lust of Hate
  • A Prince of Swindlers
  • Sheilah McLeod: A Heroine of the Back Blocks
• Mary Gaunt – Kirkham's Find
• E. W. Hornung
  • My Lord Duke
  • Young Blood
• Louise Mack – Teens: A Story of Australian School Girls
• Rosa Praed – Nulma
• Roderic Quinn – Mostyn Stayne

• Louis Becke – Pacific Tales
• Guy Boothby
  • "One of the Cloth"
  • "With Three Phantoms"
• Ada Cambridge – At Midnight and Other Stories
• Mary Gaunt – "The Lost White Woman: A Pioneer's Yarn"
• Henry Lawson
  • "Mr Smellingscheck"
  • "Two Larrikins"
• A. B. Paterson – "Bill and Jim Nearly Get Taken Down"
• Rosa Praed — "Miss Crosson's Familiar"
• Steele Rudd
  • "Dave's Snake-Bite"
  • "Jack or Cranky Jack"
  • "A Kangaroo Hunt from Shingle Hut"
  • "The Parson and the Scone"
• Price Warung – "The Spread-Eagling of Convict Cunliffe"

• Arthur A. D. Bayldon – Poems
• Barcroft Boake – Where the Dead Men Lie, and Other Poems
• E. J. Brady – "The Whaler's Pig"
• Christopher Brennan – XXI Poems 1893-1897: Towards the Source
• Victor J. Daley – "A Treat for the London Poor"
• J. Le Gay Brereton – Sweetheart Mine: Lyrics of Love and Friendship
• John Farrell – "Australia to England"
• W. T. Goodge
  • "The Great Australian Adjective"
  • "The Oozlum Bird"
• Henry Lawson
  • "The Lights of Cobb and Co."
  • "The Old Bark School"
• Ethel Mills – "The Brumby's Death"
• Breaker Morant – "Who's Riding Old Harlequin Now?"
• Will H. Ogilvie – "The Stockyard Liar"
• A. B. Paterson
  • "The Ballad of the Calliope"
  • "By the Grey Gulf-water"
  • "Saltbush Bill's Second Fight"
• Charles Thatcher – "Look Out Below!"
• Ethel Turner – "Orphaned by the Sea"
• Dora Wilcox – "After the Floods"
• David McKee Wright – Station Ballads and Other Verses

A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1897 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of death.

• 16 March – Flora Eldershaw, novelist (died 1956)
• 9 April – Dale Collins, journalist and novelist (died 1956)
• 16 August – Marjorie Barnard, novelist (died 1987)

Unknown date

• Winifred Birkett, novelist and poet (died 1966)

A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1897 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.

• 22 December – William Gay, poet (born 1865)

• 1897 in poetry
• List of years in literature
• List of years in Australian literature