AustLit

Nineteenth-Century Travel Writing

Marian Ellis Rowan (1848-1922) was an artist, naturalist and explorer. In A Flower-Hunter in Queensland & New Zealand she presents an illustrated travel narrative that chronicles her journey through Queensland and New Zealand, and was dedicated to her sister. As a botanist, Rowan’s text was constructed around her love of flora; it was this interest that transformed Rowan from a flower collector into an explorer, and carried her "into the depths of jungles, to distant lands, to wild mountain districts." Rowan sketched flora and fauna, with many of the wildflowers, birds, insects and butterflies painted by Rowan being recorded for the first time, and many of them were classified and named by the government botanist Sir Ferdinand Mueller. Rowan's exploratory was is reinforced through the illustrations that depict her in adventurous and dangerous settings. Through her engaging narrative, she describes her encounters with the Aboriginal communities, her journey through Queensland and to New Zealand, the excitement and danger of travelling through the Australian colonies. It also included advice to emigrants, and was constructed through epistolary devices.