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'Settlers and Convicts' title page
Issue Details: First known date: 1847... 1847 Settlers and Convicts : Or Recollections of Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods
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Affiliation Notes

  • 19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

    Published under the pseudonym "An Emigrant Mechanic," Alexander Harris (1805-1874) also authored A Guide to Port Stephens in New South Wales, the Colony of the Australian Agricultural Company with a Map (1849) and The Emigrant Family: or, the Story of an Australian Settler (1849), and a travel narrative that was reprinted with the title Martin Beck: or the Story of an Australian Settler (1852). The Australian Dictionary of Biography notes that Alexander Harris was long thought to be the pen name of the author, but now it is believed to be his real name. In the advertisement to Settlers and Convicts Harris noted that this pseudonym was used to draw attention "to a system" rather than his private adventures. This first-person narrative provides an illustration of the author's life in the Australian colonies, combining personal anecdotes with a commentary on convict discipline, bush and station life, and interactions with Aboriginal peoples.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      C. Cox ,
      1847 .
      image of person or book cover 6158533659472533345.png
      'Settlers and Convicts' title page
      Extent: xii, 435p.p.
      Edition info: 'New edition' (single volume)
      Reprinted: 1852
      Note/s:
      • Ferguson 4529
      • Digitised by AustLit in cooperation with SETIS, 2003.

      Holdings

      Held at: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies AIATSIS Library
      Local Id: RB H313.15/S1

      Holdings

      Held at: Adelaide University Barr Smith Library
      Local Id: 994.4 H31

      Holdings

      Held at: National Library of Australia
      Local Id: FC F4529

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Queensland State Library of QLD
      Local Id: RBJ 919.4402 HAR

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of New South Wales
      Local Id: DSM/981/33A3

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of South Australia State Library of SA
      Local Id: 994.4T H313

      Holdings

      Held at: Royal Geographical Society of South Australia Inc Royal Geographical Society of South Australia Library
      Local Id: rga 919.4042 H313

      Holdings

      Held at: University of New South Wales UNSW Library
      Local Id: V 994.4/28

      Holdings

      Held at: University of Melbourne The University Library
      Location: UniM Bail SpC/AX
      Local Id: 919.44 H313

      Holdings

      Held at: University of Queensland University of Queensland Library Fryer Library
      Local Id: DU160 .H35 1847

      Holdings

      Held at: Australian Museum Australian Museum Research Library
      Local Id: RB D919.44/HAR/RARE BOOKS

      Holdings

      Held at: Monash University Monash University Library
      Local Id: 919.4 H313S
      London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      1847 .
      Extent: II vols [ I vol, 220 p. ; II vol, 215 p. ]p.
      Note/s:
      • Ferguson 4529a
      • A re-issue of Ferguson 4529 in two volumes for Knight's Monthly Volume

Works about this Work

A 19th-Century Literary Controversy 1995 single work column
— Appears in: Margin , November no. 37 1995; (p. 34-35)
y separately published work icon Who are We? The Australian Quest for Literary Identity Richard Scott Carr , Ann Arbor : University Microfilms International , 1994 Z67137 1994 single work thesis

'This full-fledged literary and critical history of Australian fiction specifies the governing themes of the fiction and its various schools; it analyzes the evolution of a canon of Australian fiction in literary history; and it demonstrates the way Australian writers and scholars have been forced to adjust their beliefs about authentic Australian literature since the emergence of Aboriginal imaginative writing in the 1960s. This study presents and analyzes the longstanding battle of Australian literature for academic and popular recognition in Australia, a struggle mirroring the larger national quest for a confident identity. The "Emigrant Mechanic," narrator of Alexander Harris' Settlers and Convicts, or Recollections of Sixteen Years Labour in the Australian Backwoods (1847), identifies themes that have persisted in Australian culture and literature--the fascination with the landscape, the rise of the New Australian, the mateship social dynamic.

'Those themes persist, for example, in the 'bush fiction' of Henry Lawson, Joseph Furphy, and their successors, fiction focusing on survival, as bush dwellers fight an environment bent on defeating human effort. Harris adds another major theme that resonates in Australia's canonical fiction when, despite his avowed aim to celebrate the Australian experience, he returns homesick to England. Much of Australian fiction is a story of leaving; the hero--the exceptional person--must escape Australia to find fulfillment.

'Those who stay, like Meg in Ethel Turner's Seven Little Australians, are best served by learning to become proper Imperial citizens. The emergence of Aboriginal fiction, poetry, and drama in the 1960s introduces a new story and theme into Australian literature, the search for the Aboriginal soul lost or disrupted with the arrival of the Europeans, when the narrator in Mudrooroo's (Colin Johnson's) landmark Wild Cat Falling (1965) breaks from the cycle of prison-release-recapture. Recognizing his heritage and recovering his Aboriginal self, he provides--in the Aboriginal journey to reclaim the soul--a potent literary counter to the cultural sense of displacement and inferiority evident throughout Australian canonical fiction. In recognizing and embracing the Aboriginal spirit of the continent, Australian writers and readers can hope to resolve their identity quest.' (National Library of Australia catalogue record)

News from Australia: Journalism, Fiction, and Criminality in the Early Australian Novel Robert Zeller , 1993 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 7 no. 1 1993; (p. 51-58)
In Search of Alexander Harris Patricia Miles , 1992 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Push , no. 30 1992; (p. 46-69)
The Road Not Taken? Dorothy Green , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , September vol. 49 no. 3 1989; (p. 288-299)
Untitled 1847 single work review
— Appears in: The Atlas , 23 October vol. 3 no. 152 1847; (p. 513-515)

— Review of Settlers and Convicts : Or Recollections of Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods An Emigrant Mechanic , 1847 single work novel
Australian Adventure Ken Levis , 1954 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 15 no. 2 1954; (p. 114-116)

— Review of Ralph Rashleigh, or, The Life of an Exile James Tucker , 1929 single work novel ; Settlers and Convicts : Or Recollections of Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods An Emigrant Mechanic , 1847 single work novel
A 'Romantic' Pioneer Sidney J. Baker , 1953 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 6 June 1953; (p. 10)

— Review of Settlers and Convicts : Or Recollections of Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods An Emigrant Mechanic , 1847 single work novel
Untitled J. G. , 1953 single work review
— Appears in: Twentieth Century , vol. 8 no. 1 1953; (p. 66-68)

— Review of Settlers and Convicts : Or Recollections of Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods An Emigrant Mechanic , 1847 single work novel
Untitled John Metcalfe , 1953 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Quarterly , vol. 5 no. 3 1953; (p. 111-118)

— Review of Settlers and Convicts : Or Recollections of Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods An Emigrant Mechanic , 1847 single work novel
In Search of Alexander Harris Patricia Miles , 1992 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Push , no. 30 1992; (p. 46-69)
Alexander Harris 1805-74 Graeme Kinross-Smith , 1980 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Australia's Writers 1980; (p. 8-10)
The Road Not Taken? Dorothy Green , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , September vol. 49 no. 3 1989; (p. 288-299)
y separately published work icon Who are We? The Australian Quest for Literary Identity Richard Scott Carr , Ann Arbor : University Microfilms International , 1994 Z67137 1994 single work thesis

'This full-fledged literary and critical history of Australian fiction specifies the governing themes of the fiction and its various schools; it analyzes the evolution of a canon of Australian fiction in literary history; and it demonstrates the way Australian writers and scholars have been forced to adjust their beliefs about authentic Australian literature since the emergence of Aboriginal imaginative writing in the 1960s. This study presents and analyzes the longstanding battle of Australian literature for academic and popular recognition in Australia, a struggle mirroring the larger national quest for a confident identity. The "Emigrant Mechanic," narrator of Alexander Harris' Settlers and Convicts, or Recollections of Sixteen Years Labour in the Australian Backwoods (1847), identifies themes that have persisted in Australian culture and literature--the fascination with the landscape, the rise of the New Australian, the mateship social dynamic.

'Those themes persist, for example, in the 'bush fiction' of Henry Lawson, Joseph Furphy, and their successors, fiction focusing on survival, as bush dwellers fight an environment bent on defeating human effort. Harris adds another major theme that resonates in Australia's canonical fiction when, despite his avowed aim to celebrate the Australian experience, he returns homesick to England. Much of Australian fiction is a story of leaving; the hero--the exceptional person--must escape Australia to find fulfillment.

'Those who stay, like Meg in Ethel Turner's Seven Little Australians, are best served by learning to become proper Imperial citizens. The emergence of Aboriginal fiction, poetry, and drama in the 1960s introduces a new story and theme into Australian literature, the search for the Aboriginal soul lost or disrupted with the arrival of the Europeans, when the narrator in Mudrooroo's (Colin Johnson's) landmark Wild Cat Falling (1965) breaks from the cycle of prison-release-recapture. Recognizing his heritage and recovering his Aboriginal self, he provides--in the Aboriginal journey to reclaim the soul--a potent literary counter to the cultural sense of displacement and inferiority evident throughout Australian canonical fiction. In recognizing and embracing the Aboriginal spirit of the continent, Australian writers and readers can hope to resolve their identity quest.' (National Library of Australia catalogue record)

Cornstalk Papers : No.8 : the Cedar Getters J. H. M. Abbott , 1918 single work prose
— Appears in: The Australian Town and Country Journal , 25 September vol. 98 no. 2543 1918; (p. 37)
Last amended 13 May 2021 13:08:02
Settings:
  • Bush,
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
  • Hawkesbury area, Northwest Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,
  • 1820s
  • 1830s
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