AustLit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

George Ettienne Loyau (1835-1898) was a journalist and author who travelled through the colonies of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, while working as a gold digger, shepherd, shearer, overseer, stockman, cattle drover, cook, private tutor, and press correspondent. Loyau was the editor of the Burnett Argus, the Maryborough Chronicle, the Gundagai Times, Bunyip, the Illustrated Adelaide News and the parliamentary reporter and sub-editor on the Queensland Daily Guardian. Loyau published three works of poetry: The Australian Seasons (1871), Australian Wild Flowers (1871) and Colonial Lyrics (1872), as well as The South Australian Annual: Australian tales by well known writers (1877), The Gawler Handbook (1880), Representative Men of South Australia (1883), Notable South Australians (1885) and The History of Maryborough (1895). His travel narrative Personal Experiences of George E. Loyau is an account of his adventures in the Australian colonies which was intended as a "souvenir" of Christmas and the New Year. The autobiography included poems, letters, anecdotes of travel, performance programmes, and descriptions of bushmen and Aboriginal people. It was written in an entertaining manner and concluded with an appendix of positive reviews from the press for the work.