AustLit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

Albert Frederick Calvert (1872-1946), author, traveller, and mining engineer, first visited Australia in 1890. In a series of expeditions in 1890-92 from Lake Gairdner in South Australia to the upper Muchison River (some undertaken for the General Exploration Company of London and the British Australian Exploration Company), he discovered the rare spinifex parakeet. Calvert authored a number of descriptive accounts of Western Australia that dealt with mining, as well as The Discovery of Australia (1893). He also published books about Africa, freemasonry, and, later, about Spanish art and history. In My Fourth Tour in Western Australia, Calvert presents a subjective account of his travels through Western Australia in 1895. He dedicated his personal observations of the region to his brother, Leonard, who died during this tour. Calvert's travel narrative is extensively illustrated, discussing the life, people, and country of Western Australia in the 1890s.