AustLit
A Letter From Sydney The Principal Town of Australasia : & Other Writings on Colonization
collected work
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
This work was first published as a series of letters in London by the Morning Chronicle. Wakefield falsely claimed to be a disgruntled settler writing from Sydney when in fact he was in prison for the kidnapping of a school girl.
Wakefield proposed the sale of crown lands in small units at a "sufficient price" (fixed and modest), rather than the granting of large tracts free. The proceeds would pay for sending emigrants from Great Britain, who were to be equally divided by sex and to represent a cross-section of English society.
Notes
-
Introduction by Professor R.C. Mills.
-
Original publication (1829) described (p.vii) as edited by Robert Gouger (a founder of South Australia) but also attributed to Robert Yonger (p. xiii).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Fiction and Fakements in Colonial Australia
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Studies , September vol. 23 no. 3 2020; (p. 360-370)'The imaginations of convicts in Australia became attuned to the pairing of opposites and this led to strange tensions in their way of representing things. On Norfolk Island the meanings of words were reversed, so that ‘good’ meant ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’ meant ‘beautiful’. This undermining of official meanings produced the argot called the ‘flash’ or ‘kiddy’ language of the colony. Designed at first to keep private sentiments from being inspected, it eventually supported a system of dissident actions called ‘cross-work’ or ‘cross doings’. One word loomed large amidst these inversions: ‘fakement’, meaning booty, forgery or deceit. The verb has more extensive meanings: rob, wound, shatter; ‘fake your slangs’ means break your shackles. It also meant performing a fiction and accepting the consequences of it.' (Publication abstract)
-
An Interesting Page of Australian History
1929
single work
review
— Appears in: All About Books , 20 May vol. 1 no. 6 1929; (p. 183)
— Review of A Letter From Sydney The Principal Town of Australasia : & Other Writings on Colonization 1929 collected work correspondence -
The South Australian Land Bubble
1890
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Austral Edition of the Selected Works of Marcus Clarke : Together with a Biography and Monograph of the Deceased Author 1890; (p. 141-148) 'Among the many bubbles of speculation that, reflecting in their shining sides prismatic worlds of fortune, have been destined to burst in the most commonplace of soapsuds, it would be unfair to class the speculation-born colony of South Australia...' (141)
-
An Interesting Page of Australian History
1929
single work
review
— Appears in: All About Books , 20 May vol. 1 no. 6 1929; (p. 183)
— Review of A Letter From Sydney The Principal Town of Australasia : & Other Writings on Colonization 1929 collected work correspondence -
The South Australian Land Bubble
1890
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Austral Edition of the Selected Works of Marcus Clarke : Together with a Biography and Monograph of the Deceased Author 1890; (p. 141-148) 'Among the many bubbles of speculation that, reflecting in their shining sides prismatic worlds of fortune, have been destined to burst in the most commonplace of soapsuds, it would be unfair to class the speculation-born colony of South Australia...' (141) -
Fiction and Fakements in Colonial Australia
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Studies , September vol. 23 no. 3 2020; (p. 360-370)'The imaginations of convicts in Australia became attuned to the pairing of opposites and this led to strange tensions in their way of representing things. On Norfolk Island the meanings of words were reversed, so that ‘good’ meant ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’ meant ‘beautiful’. This undermining of official meanings produced the argot called the ‘flash’ or ‘kiddy’ language of the colony. Designed at first to keep private sentiments from being inspected, it eventually supported a system of dissident actions called ‘cross-work’ or ‘cross doings’. One word loomed large amidst these inversions: ‘fakement’, meaning booty, forgery or deceit. The verb has more extensive meanings: rob, wound, shatter; ‘fake your slangs’ means break your shackles. It also meant performing a fiction and accepting the consequences of it.' (Publication abstract)
