Of them, including many rare species, planted and nurtured on his homestead over the course of his daughter's girlhood. There was always something he felt she should be wearing.'' The only thing on which he lavishes more attention is his collection of eucalyptus trees. Holland is a controlling father, down to the last detail: ''Almost unconsciously, he supervised her movements it felt like the bestowing of protection.'' At times, his attentions skirt the edges of taboo: ''He had alwaysīought all Ellen's clothes, including underclothes. And the main characters are a widower named HollandĪnd his daughter, Ellen, whose ''speckled beauty'' turns the heads of all who meet her. The time - although it hardly matters in this timeless tale - is several decades after World War II. The place is a riverside homestead, tricked out with a princess's tower, in New South Wales. Heroine, trapped in a nuptial arrangement straight out of a fairy-tale nightmare, any pleasure in her plight is out of the question. In Bail's magical new novel, ''Eucalyptus,'' the setting again is ''virtually an outdoor museum of trees,'' offering readers ample opportunity to enjoy its creator's offbeat talents. Said it all: ''This is like a museum of crops and trees. One character's expression of relief while driving through a stretch of Andean farmland The book revealed Bail as a prickly and extravagantĬomedian, and its portrait of a young country trying overearnestly to connect with its Old World heritage was as poignant as it was humorous. These are just a few of the attractions in Murray Bail's kaleidoscopic 1980 novel, ''Homesickness,'' in which 13 Australians circumnavigate the globe on an endless package tour. Onsider the following itinerary: (1) a Mustache Museum in Prague (2) a Museo de Piernas (Museum of Legs) in Quito (3) a Museum of Atheism and a ''Center An Australian novel ties the fate of a young woman to eucalyptus trees.

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