 As it was an awkward length for a novel, publishers requested that Anderson extend the story, which she did following a trip to London in 1974.In 1975 Tirra Lirra was broadcast as a radio play, and in 1977 Macmillan Publishers in Melbourne accepted it for publishing.In the year of its publication, "Tirra Lirra" won the Australian Natives' Association Literary Award, and the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia's most prestigious literary award.