AustLit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

Peter Miller Cunningham (1789-1864) was a surgeon for the royal navy and an author. After establishing pastoral runs on the Upper Hunter River, Cunningham wrote Two Years in New South Wales, which was prefaced by a note stating that  Cunningham had made voyages to New South Wales as Surgeon-Superintendent of convict ships, was a resident for two years in New South Wales, and as such is an appropriate author for such a colonial text. Cunningham's work compared the Australian colonies against others, including America and the Cape of Good Hope. Describing the Australian colonies in detail, Cunningham concentrated on the settled areas outside Sydney and agricultural production. The work was later published as Two Years in New South Wales; Comprising Sketches of the Actual State of Society in that Colony; of its Peculiar Advantages to Emigrants; of its Topography, Natural History, &c. &c., a republication that was described as a "Revised and Enlarged" second edition (still in 1827). Despite this, the work was very similar, except for the addition of a map, an expanded chapter on pasture, an additional chapter on colonial prices and trading, advice to the newly-arrived emigrant, and a new concluding chapter on Australian newspapers. A third edition was published in 1828 and was identical to the second edition.