AustLit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

George S. Baden-Powell (1847–1898), British politician and author (and elder brother of the Boy Scout founder Robert Baden-Powell), published his personal description of Australia in two illustrated volumes. In his preface, Baden-Powell sets up a binary between the women who remain in England and form the audience for his work, and the male politicians, travellers, and traders who journey to the colonies, whose experiences are detailed by the author. The volumes are divided into descriptions of geographical and social situations, modes of travel, life in the bush, natural history, and Indigenous populations, moving between the Australian and New Zealand colonies. It is written in a first person, factual style, ranging from practical details of bush life to political discussions of imperial federation.