AustLit

'Although better known as a novelist than a journalist, Dickens' career included editing two periodicals and thousands of articles ... Charles Dickens' Australia collects essays, stories and poems relating to Australia from Dickens' journal Household Words. The collection shows the changing social environment of Australia during the gold rush of the 1850s.

'Charles Dickens' Australia is arranged into five books:

'Book One: Convict Stories looks at the experiences of convicts from sentencing to transportation to pardon. Book Two: Immigration talks about how to prepare for migration to Australia, while Book Three: Frontier Stories focuses on the experience of farming and opening up new land, and includes accounts of encounters with bushrangers and Aborigines. Book Four: Mining and Gold describes the life on the goldfields, depicting men and women from various ranks of society, all hoping to make a fortune. Book Five: Maritime Conditions recounts experiences of the sea journeys and whale-hunting, the need for Panama and Suez canals, and other technical developments to improve global travel and transport.' (From the publisher's website).