AustLit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

Scottish born William Westgarth (1815-1889) was a merchant, financier, historian, and politician who was a member of New South Wales Legislative Council and also the Victorian Legislative Council. Westgarth prefaced his Half a Century of Australasian Progress by highlighting the economic and political focus of the text. Although it included a travel narrative, it was primarily a political document, written in the first person. Westgarth described his voyage to Australia and travels within the colonies, interrupted by "inevitable digressions" on trade, reform and "the Chinese and Coloured Labour Question". The text is divided into two parts, an "Itinerary of the Tour of a Revisit" to Australia and New Zealand, and a "Series of Articles on General Questions of Australasia, The Colonies, and The Empire Generally". Westgarth also authored The Colony of Victoria (1864) and Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and Victoria (1888).