Australian journalist Robert Darroch – in several articles in the late 1970s, and a 1981 book entitled "D.H. Lawrence in Australia" – claimed that Lawrence based "Kangaroo" on real people and events he witnessed in Australia. The extent to which this is true remains a matter of controversy. Joseph Davis in "D.H. Lawrence at Thirroul" (1989) is sympathetic to the view that "Kangaroo" may be based on real events, but argues that it is impossible that Lawrence had time to meet clandestine political leaders in Sydney when he was too busy writing his novel in Thirroul. Davis feels it is more likely to have been a local south-coast identity associated with Thirroul who would have provided some of the details of Lawrence's political plot.