AustLit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

Thomas Wallace Knox (1835-1896) was a journalist, author, writer and traveller. The Boy Travellers in Australasia was based on an adventure undertaken two boys (Frank Bassett and Fred Bronson) at the request of Knox. Knox edited their travels into an extensively illustrated work, as he believed that he was filling a gap in the American market for work about Australia. The young travellers journeyed from America via the Pacific and New Zealand, arriving in Sydney. The book is dramatic and at times sensational, particularly regarding misadventures in the bush and Australian wildlife. It is written in story-book format and appears to be aimed at children. Knox also authored The Land of the Kangaroo. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey Through the Great Island Continent (1896).