AustLit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

George Bennett (1804–1893), medical practitioner and naturalist, details his global tour in the two-volume travel narrative Wanderings in New South Wales, Batavia, Pedir Coast, Singapore, and China. An adaptation of his journal during his travel from 1832-34, Bennett’s book describes the landscape of Australia and his feelings as a potential new emigrant (Bennett returned in Australia in 1836, where he remained for the rest of his life). The preface states that Bennett travelled during periods of the year best calculated for observations in natural history, and these accounts of the natural environment are accompanied with incidences that Bennett thought worthy of notice. Bennett provides a detailed illustration of Sydney—such as the flora, fruits, the theatre, and convicts—as well as the journey from Sydney to the Blue Mountains where he encountered the Aboriginal population, native fauna and flora, and dissected a kangaroo. As a naturalist, Bennett focussed on the uniqueness of plants, the different types of marsupials, as well as the diseases that affect Aborigines and native animals. Both volumes in the Dixson Reading Room in the Mitchell Library are inscribed by Bennett, in his later years. Bennett later wrote Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia (1860).