AustLit

19th-Century Travel Writing

This is an edited collection of short tales of the colonies. It was collated in order to bring stories and sketches told by writers who were either born in, or had experience in, the colonies to the British public. The first essay, “In the Australian Wilds” by Benjamin Leopold Farjeon, novelist and playwright, is a travel narrative that described the bush, convicts, and the goldfields in a conversational tone that resembles an adventure novel following Farjeon’s travels through Victoria and to Melbourne. Other entries included “The Settler’s Tragedy: A Legend of Muskoka” by Edward Jenkins, politician, barrister, Agent-General of Canada and satirical novelist; “Jim’s Ghost: A Queensland Mystery” by British born Edmund Rawson, early settler in both the Dawson Valley and Mackay regions of Queensland; “The “Ne’Er-Do-Weel”: A Doctor’s Story”, “In a Thirsty Land” and “An Underground Tragedy” by Sydney born dramatist Charles Chambers; “The Hand of God: A Story of the Waitiri Gorge” by Australian born journalist, playwright and fiction writer Henry Marriott; “Monsieur Caloche” by London born Tasma (Jessie Huybers), novelist, lecturer and journalist; and “Traits of the Township: An Up-Country Sketch” by editor and English born journalist, newspaper owner and encyclopedist Phillip Mennell.