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J H M (John Henry McCartney)
ABBOTT (1874-1953)
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...All the Boers have fled to the Vaal--probably
across it, without stopping, to Johannesburg and Pretoria. There
will be a siege, possibly, for a month. You will sit upon a hill
and watch the shelling. The lyddite will soon bring them to their
senses, once they are fairly bottled up in a town, with the bricks
and stones tumbling about their ears. It is all very simple and
straightforward now. You will be back in time for shearing. From:
Tommy Cornstalk |
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Arthur Henry ADAMS (1872-1936)
[a.k.a 'James JAMES' and 'Henry James JAMES']
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He had taken the plunge. He was going to conquer
Sydney, the siren city of the South, the Athens of Australia. Four
days' steaming across the Pacific had brought him to that centre of
art and letters, and he saw the gaunt cliffs of the Heads open to
receive him. New Zealand was merely a materialistic paddock for
mutton and beef and butter. No hope for him there: he needed a
wider arena. His grey-headed editor had always told him he would be
called to Sydney. |
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| Malcolm R
AFFORD (1906-1954)
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To many who read my account of our amazing
adventure on the island of the Gland Men, it will serve as just
another illustration of how devious is the path of science. It will
illustrate also how, from the darkness that girds it round,
terrible possibilities loom black and menacing, terrifying those
daring enough to wander from the beaten track. |
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| Roald
AMUNDSEN (1872-1928)
Go to the South Pole site for more information about
South Pole exploration.
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Up to this moment the observations and our
reckoning had shown a surprising agreement. We reckoned that we
should be at the Pole on December 14. On the afternoon of that day
we had brilliant weather--a light wind from the south-east with a
temperature of -10[degree] F. The sledges were going very well. The
day passed without any occurrence worth mentioning, and at three
o'clock in the afternoon we halted, as according to our reckoning
we had reached our goal. |
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ANONYMOUS/UNKNOWN
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William Cox was responsible for the making of the
road over the Blue Mountains in 1814, not long after the first
successful crossing by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth. Cox's
memoirs were not written by him and, in the Introduction to the
1979 edition, Edna Hickson, great-great grand daughter of William
Cox, states that it is likely that a granson of Cox was responsible
for the publication, if not the author. Hickson goes on to say
that:
"The diary written in Chapter 9 has been transcribed from Cox's
original journal, now in the Mitchell Library (C708). This is the
most interesting section of the Memoir, and is the only part
written by William Cox himself. Some parts of the old road can
still be found, and it is possible to walk down the dreaded descent
from Mount York into the Hartley Valley."
From: Memoirs of William Cox. |
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ANONYMOUS(P.G. M.)
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This is an early Austrlaian 'Science Fiction' story, which first
appeared in The South Australian Odd Fellows' Magazine,
August, 1845)
But the ringing of bells and the firing of the great steam
cannon at Fort Boston announce the fact that the festivities of the
day have now commenced, and as our Lodge takes a prominent part in
them, I must resign my seat in the electro-phonotypographical chair
to some one more worthy to fill it.
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ANONYMOUS/UNKNOWN
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More than two-thirds of the newspaper articles in this
"scrapbook" fall naturally into one of a number of broad
topics.
These include letters and journals, from ordinary people, from the
military and from convicts, about the state of the colony,
crime and transportation and the vicissitudes of life in the new
colony of New South Wales.
Port Jackson, 14th November, 1788. I take the first
opportunity that has been given us to acquaint you with our
disconsolate situation in this solitary waste of the creation. Our
passage, you may have heard by the first ships, was tolerably
favourable; but the inconveniences since suffered for want of
shelter, bedding, &c., are not to be imagined by any stranger.
However, we have now two streets, if four rows of the most
miserable huts you can possibly conceive of deserve that name.
Windows they have none, as from the Governor's house, &c., now
nearly finished, no glass could be spared; so that lattices of
twigs are made by our people to supply their places. At the
extremity of the lines, where since our arrival the dead are
buried, there is a place called the church-yard; but we hear, as
soon as a sufficient quantity of bricks can be made, a church is to
be built, and named St. Philip, after the Governor. Notwithstanding
all our presents, the savages still continue to do us all the
injury they can, which makes the soldiers' duty very hard, and much
dissatisfaction among the officers. [Extract from a letter from
a female convict.]
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Robert AUSTIN
(1825-1905)
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I have the honour to submit...the following Report,
briefly explaining the operations of the Expedition to Shark Bay;
and adverting to the geological structure, natural productions,
water-parting, and general character of the interior of this colony
to the N. and E. of the settled districts, and towards the
Gascoigne River, described in the accompanying maps and journals,
and explored by the party under my command, in pursuance of
instructions received... |
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| E J BANFIELD (1852-1923)
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. . . am I not free from the cares that obtrude on
those of tougher texture of mind who find joy in the opposite to
this peace and unconcern for the rewards and honours of the world?
Better this isolation and moderation in all things than, racked
with worries, to moan and fret because of non-success in the
ceaseless struggle for riches, or the increase thereof; better than
to bow down to and worship in the "soiled temple of Commercialism"
that haughty and supercilious old idol Mammon; better than to offer
continual sacrifices of rest, health, and the immediate good of
life to appease the exacting and silly deities of fashion and
society.
There may be some who, in a disparaging tone, will at this stage of
my confessions enter an accusation of impracticableness. To such a
charge I would plead guilty; but to those who proffer it, I neither
appeal, nor do I fear judgment. These writings are for those who
see something in life beyond the mere "getting on in world," or
making a din in it. |
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| Sir Joseph BANKS
(1743-1820)
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1770 June 28. Tupia by Roasting his Coccos very
much in his Oven made them lose intirely their acridity; the Roots
were so small that we did not think them at all an object for the
ship so resolvd to content ourselves with the greens which are
calld in the West Indies Indian Kale. I went with the seamen to
shew them the Place and they Gatherd a large quantity. Saw one tree
and only one notchd in the same manner as those at Botany bay. We
have ever since we have been here observd the nests of a kind of
Ants much like the White ants in the East indies but to us
perfectly harmless; they were always pyramidical, from a few inches
to 6 feet in hight and very much resembled stones which I have seen
in English Druidical monuments. Today we met with a large number of
them of all sizes rangd in a small open place which had a very
pretty effect; Dr Solander compard them to the Rune Stones on the
Plains of Upsal in Sweden, myself to all the smaller Druidical
monuments I had seen. |
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George BARRINGTON (1755-1804)
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Upon his trial on this occasion, it was that he
appeared to have first distinguished himself as a public speaker.
He endeavoured, with much art, but without any success, to work
upon the feelings of the Court and Jury; but the proofs against him
were so clear, that he was found guilty; and, pursuant to his
sentence, he was removed once more to the Hulks at Woolwich, about
the middle of the year 1778. A Voyage to Botany Bay |
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Sir John BARROW (1764-1848)
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Just before sun-rising on Tuesday the 28th [April
1789], while I was yet asleep, Mr. Christian, officer of the watch,
Charles Churchill, ship's corporal, John Mills, gunner's mate, and
Thomas Burkitt, seaman, came into my cabin, and seizing me, tied my
hands with a cord behind my back, threatening me with instant death
if I spoke or made the least noise. I called, however, as loud as I
could in hopes of assistance; but they had already secured the
officers who were not of their party, by placing sentinels at their
doors. There were three men at my cabin door, besides the four
within; Christian had only a cutlass in his hand, the others had
muskets and bayonets. [William Bligh] |
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| John Arthur
BARRY (1850-1911)
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The general opinion of those who felt called upon
to give it was that Steve Brown, of the Scrubby Corner, 'wasn't any
chop.' Not that, on the surface, there seemed much evidence
confirmatory of such a verdict--rather, indeed, the contrary. If a
traveller, drover or teamster lost his stock, Steve, after a long
and arduous search, was invariably the first man to come across the
missing animals--provided the reward was high enough. Yet, in spite
of this useful gift of discovery, its owner was neither liked nor
trusted. Uncharitable people--especially the ones whom he took such
trouble to oblige--would persist in hinting that none knew so well
where to find as those that hid. --From Steve Brown's
Bunyip |
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George Burnett BARTON (1836-1901)
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Every country, it is said, is governed as well as
it deserves to be; and since the same electors who have
deliberately returned these corrupt and time-serving politicians to
represent them will choose the members of the Federal Parliament,
is it to be supposed that they will return men of a higher class to
represent them in its two Houses?
From: "The Troubles of Australian Federation." |
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George BASS (1771-1803)
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Furneaux's Land, or that land seen by Captain
Furneaux in the latitude of 39° 00',** is a lofty hummocky
promontory of hard granite, of about 20 miles in length, and
varying from 6 or 7 to 12 or 14 miles in breadth. Its firmness and
vast durability make it well worthy of being, what there is great
reason to believe it is, the boundary point of a large strait and a
corner-stone of this great island, New Holland. It is joined to the
mainland by a low neck of sand, which is nearly divided by a lagoon
that runs in on the west side of it, and by a large shoal inlet on
the east. |
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Thomas BASTARD (fl. 1881)
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In those days there were no telegraphs or railways,
so that when I arrived at Port Adelaide I had no means of making my
arrival known to my wife and family, and was unable to make a quick
journey to the city, but had to be jolted along a rough road in a
very modest spring cart, I was not even favored with a public
demonstration, but "Never mind," thought I, "stop
till I get home, for there I know I shall meet a warm and loving
reception from my dear wife and children, perhaps more so than if I
had been the Governor of the Province," and as it happened I
was not far wrong. After a great deal of pulling and hauling by the
children, and kissing and hugging by my wife, there was a pause,
and then came
questions and answers too numerous to mention, and amongst others
there was, "Have you been lucky, Tom?" "Yes!"
replied I, "lucky to get home safely." "That is not
what I mean," said my wife, "have you got any
gold?" "Very little, I am sorry to say," was my
reply. The news of my return, however, soon spread, and the
neighbors flocked in to see a returned digger, but, alas, with very
little gold. |
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Daisy BATES (1859?-1951)
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Just before I left London a letter had been
published in The Times containing strong allegations of cruelty to
Western Australian aborigines by the white settlers of the
North-West. I called upon The Times, stated that I was going to
Western Australia and offered to make full investigation of the
charges, and to write them the results. The offer was
accepted. |
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J S BATTYE (1871-1954)
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...a Bill was presented to the English Parliament
"relative to the Government of His Majesty's settlements in Western
Australia on the western coast of New Holland." This was passed on
14 May [1829] (10 George IV c.22) and provided that the King, with
the advice of the Privy Council, might make, or might authorise any
person or persons resident in the colony to make, such laws and
ordinances as might be necessary for the peace, order, and good
government of His Majesty's subjects within the settlement; that
such laws, orders, etc., were to be laid before both Houses of
Parliament as soon as practicable thereafter; that no part of the
colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land was to be
included in the new colony or settlements, and that the Act was to
continue in force until the end of 1834. This period of continuance
was extended by the various Acts from time to time until it was
formally repealed by the passage of 13-14 Victoria c.59, which
dealt with the government of the whole of the Australian
colonies. |
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Barbara BAYNTON (1857-1929)
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The creek was a banker, but the track led to a
plank, which, lashed to the willows on cither bank, was usually
above flood-level. A churning sound showed that the water was over
the plank, and she must wade along it. She turned to the sullen
sky. There was no gleam of light save in her resolute, white
face. |
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| Louis BECKE (1855-1913)
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Now the trader thought in this wise: "This is well
for me, for if I get the girl away thus quietly from all her
relations I shall save much in presents," and his heart rejoiced,
for although not mean he was a careful man. So he steered his boat
seaward, between the seething surf that boiled and hissed on both
sides of the boat passage. From "By Reef and Palm and Other
Stories." |
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Joseph Lievesley BEESTON
(1859-1921)
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One of ours told me they had reached a man severely
wounded in the leg, in close proximity to his dug-out. After he had
been placed on the stretcher and made comfortable, he was asked
whether there was anything he would like to take with him. He
pondered a bit, and then said: "Oh! you might give me my diary--I
would like to make a note of this before I forget it!" |
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Thomas BELT (1832-1878)
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It was the time of the discovery of gold in
Australia, and after much discussion he and his elder brother
joined the stream of adventurers and sailed in 1852 for Victoria.
In this rough "school of mines" he acquired that insight into the
building-up of the earth's crust and that practical knowledge of
minerals which served him so well in after-life as a mining
engineer. But although the whole colony was in the grip of the
gold-fever, Belt retained the same quiet habits of observation
which had marked him at home--for there, as to whatever part of the
world his work subsequently called him, the engineer was always at
heart a naturalist. He proved an excellent observer, and a certain
speculative tendency led him to group his observations so as to
bring out their full theoretical bearing. |
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John Thomas BIGGE
(1780-1843)
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In 1822 Mr. J T. Bigge was commissioned, by the
House of Common in England, to report on the state of the Colony of
New South Wales; to report on the Judicial Establishments and to
report on the state of Agriculture and Trade, in the Colonies of
both New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land. |
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| James
BISCHOFF (1776-1845)
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In order to make the Proprietors of the Van
Diemen's Land Company acquainted with the country in which they
have invested their properly, it has been thought desirable to give
a brief Sketch of the History of that
interesting island, to point out some of the difficulties against
which early settlers have had to contend, the manner in which they
have been surmounted, and the prosperity which has resulted from
their industry and perseverance, that by comparing themselves with
other colonists, the Proprietors may be enabled to form a just
estimate of their prospects, not only from produce which forms
annual income, but from the increased and increasing value of their
permanent investment in land. |
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Gregory BLAXLAND
(1778-1853)
- The Journal of Gregory Blaxland, 1813, edited by Frank
Walker (1861-1948)? (Incorporating "Journal of a Tour of Discovery
Across the Blue Mountains, NSW, in the year 1813". This ebook is
available from the Australian
Explorers Journals page.
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On the 28th they proceeded about five miles and
three-quarters. Not being able to find water, they did not halt
till five o'clock, when they took up their station on the edge of
the precipice. To their great satisfaction, they discovered that
what they had supposed to be sandy barren land below the mountain,
was forest land, covered with good grass and with timber of an
inferior quality. In the evening they contrived to get their horses
down the mountain by cutting a small trench with a hoe, which kept
them from slipping, where they again tasted fresh grass for the
first time since they left the forest land on the other side of the
mountain. |
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| William BLIGH (1754-1817)
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Mutiny on the Bounty
Just before sun-rising, while I was yet asleep, Mr. Christian,
with the master at arms, gunner's mate, and Thomas Burkitt, seaman,
came into my cabin, and seizing me tied my hands with a cord behind
my back, threatening me with instant death if I spoke or made the
least noise: I however called as loud as I could in hopes of
assistance; but they had already secured the officers who were not
of their party by placing sentinels at their doors. There were
three men at my cabin door besides the four within; Christian had
only a cutlass in his hand, the others had muskets and bayonets. I
was hauled out of bed and forced on deck in my shirt, suffering
great pain from the tightness which with they had tied my hands. I
demanded the reason of such violence but received no other answer
than abuse for not holding my tongue. The master, the gunner, the
surgeon, Mr. Elphinstone, master's mate, and Nelson, were kept
confined below; and the fore hatchway was guarded by sentinels.
From "A Voyage to the South Sea..."
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| Rolf
BOLDREWOOD (1826-1915)
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But it's all up now; there's no get away this time;
and I, Dick Marston, as strong as a bullock, as active as a
rock-wallaby, chock-full of life and spirits and health, have been
tried for bush-ranging--robbery under arms they call it--and though
the blood runs through my veins like the water in the mountain
creeks, and every bit of bone and sinew is as sound as the day I
was born, I must die on the gallows this day month. From
'Robbery Under Arms'. |
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Guy BOOTHBY (1867-1905)
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"...You have lately been in Ashanti, I
perceive."
I admitted that I had, and went on to inquire how he had become
aware of it; for as Kelleran had not known it until a few minutes
before, I did not see how he could be acquainted with the fact.
"It is not a very difficult thing to tell," he answered, with a
smile at my astonishment, "seeing that you carry about with you the
mark of a Gwato spear. If it were necessary I could tell you some
more things that would surprise you: for instance, I could tell you
that the man who cut the said spear out for you was an amateur at
his work, that he was left-handed, that he was short-sighted, and
that he was recovering from malaria at the time. All this is plain
to the eye; but I see our friend Kelleran fancies his dinner is
getting cold, so we had better postpone our investigations for a
more convenient opportunity." |
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George E BOXALL
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In this story of the bushrangers I do not pretend
to have included the names of all those who have at various times
been called bushrangers in Australia. That, as will be seen from
what I have said in the earlier chapters, would be not merely
impossible but useless. I believe, however, that I have collected
some particulars about all those who succeeded in winning even a
local notoriety, and I have also endeavoured to supply such
personal characteristics of the leaders in the movement as may
throw some light on the causes which induced them to "take to
the bush." My principal object, however, has been to make the
picture as complete as possible... |
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"BRENT OF BIN BIN"
see Miles Franklin |
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William Henry BRETON
(fl. 1835)
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Ships bound to the Australian
colonies sail at all times of the year; but it is by no means an
easy matter to ascertain the precise period fixed for their
departure; for such is the anxiety of the agents to secure
passengers, that they will not hesitate to state a positive time,
although well aware that the vessel may not sail for many weeks
afterwards. It is therefore advisable to withhold the passage money
until the vessel is in a state of forwardness for sea, which can
only be ascertained by a person going himself on board, and finding
out what portion of the cargo is shipped: if he cannot do so
personally, he should employ a friend to act for him. Without
taking this precaution, the emigrant may be detained in London, at
very great expense, and during a considerable time: indeed I know
of one instance in which a family were induced, through the
misrepresentations of an agent, to go from Aberdeen to London,
where, after having made their arrangements and paid their
passage-money, they were detained three months.
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John Le Gay
BRERETON (1871-1933)
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We had a little difficulty in crossing Cox's River,
which was somewhat swollen. There is no bridge, and the gigantic
oaks which have been felled from time to time across the stream
have all been swept away. Bill sniffed at the Cox, and called it a
dribbling creek, but it took him an hour to get from one side of it
to the other, with his swag and his clothes in one big bundle on
his head. There are a couple of selectors' huts near the ford, and
a half-caste woman strolled down to the river bank to watch us. But
she offered us no advice, and I mutely thanked her for her
forbearance. She was the last person we saw to-day. There are not
many houses near that bridle-track. |
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Maurice BRODSKY
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Includes sermons preached by Rev. D Jacobson and
Rev. M Rintel. Published in 1877. |
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Alexander BRITTON
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Volume I, by George Burnett BARTON (see above)
covered the period from 1783-1789, when Arthur Phillip was
Governmor. Volume II covers the period from 1789-1794, when Phillip
and Grose were Governors. |
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A R BUCKLAND (Editor)
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"I say, Dora, can't we get up some special excitement for sister
Maggie, seeing she is to be here for Christmas? I fancy she will,
in her home inexperience, expect a rather jolly time spending
Christmas in this forsaken spot. I am afraid that my letters home,
in which I coloured things up a bit, are to blame for that," my
husband added ruefully.
"What can we do, Jack?" I asked. "I can invite the Dunbars, the
Connors and the Sutherlands over for a dance, and you can arrange
for a kangaroo-hunt the following day. That is the usual thing when
special visitors come, isn't it?" From A Christmas with
Australian Blacks.
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| Thomas
John BUCKTON (fl. 1840)
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It is now universally admitted that there exists in
this country, great competition for employment in every kind of
labour, bodily and mental, amongst all classes of persons, whether
well or ill-educated. The debates in Parliament, the evidence
supplied to Committees of both Houses, and almost every newspaper,
furnish proof that the number of persons in this kingdom who are
struggling with difficulty for the means of subsistence, is
extremely great; that the happiness and prosperity of society at
large is thereby materially lessened, and that even the stability
of our political institutions is occasionally placed in jeopardy by
this state of things. |
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Daniel BUNCE (1813-1872)
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Daniel Bunce describes his work as
"twenty-theee years' wanderings in Tasmania and the
Australias; including travels with Dr. Leichhardt in north or
tropical Australia." |
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C T (Charles Trimby) BURFITT (d. 1927)
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Abel Janszoon Tasman was unquestionably one of the
greatest, if not the greatest, of the navigators between Magellan,
(who, in the early years of the 16th century first crossed the
Pacific Ocean), and Cook, who in the latter years of the eighteenth
century practically opened Oceania and Australia to Europe. |
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| William Aubrey BURNAGE (1837-1881)
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...the Southern Cross has given up her charge, and
her mixed assortment of prisoners are penned in Hyde Park
Barracks--the more desperate portion to be employed upon public
works, the remainder to be assigned to various masters, and
scattered broadcast among the settlements. From Sydney, the capital
town of the young colony, we turn northward, and reach the scene of
our future chapters--the Valley of the Hunter River. Situated
several miles above the mouth of the river was an extensive cattle
farm, the property of Walter Shelley, Esq. |
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James BURNEY (1750-1821)
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Subsequent to the publication of Mr. Dalrymple's
Historical Collection, a manuscript Journal of Captain
Tasman's, with charts and views of the lands discovered by him, was
brought to this country, and was purchased of the then possessor by
Mr. Banks (the present Sir Joseph Banks) shortly after his return
from the South Sea. In Sir Joseph's Library it has been
preserved not merely as a curiosity. To facilitate the means of
information from so valuable a manuscript, he procured it to be
translated into English; and the Dutch original with the English
translation are kept on the same shelf in his Library. From these,
with the permission of the Right honourable owner, the account of
Abel Jansen Tasman's Voyage is now offered to the public. The
English translation was made in 1776, by the Reverend Charles
Godfrey Woide, who was then Chaplain to His Majesty's Dutch Chapel
at St. James's Palace, and afterwards Under Librarian to the
British Museum, and is done with much care and judgment. |
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Albert F CALVERT
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... during my wanderings through Western Australia,
in the capacity of a mining engineer, I came across a good many of
the natives; and taking a profound interest in everything connected
with the colony I resolved to set down in brief and simple form
such facts as I could glean regarding this most curious specimen of
the human race. I lay no more claim to originality than is due to
one who has arranged his matter in his own way, and added a few
thoughts suggested and accruing. |
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Ada CAMBRIDGE (1844-1926)
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Guthrie Carey began life young. He was not a week
over twenty-one when, between two voyages, he married Lily
Harrison, simply because she was a poor, pretty, homeless little
girl, who had to earn her living as a nondescript lady-help in hard
situations, and never had a holiday. He saw her in a Sandridge
boarding-house, slaving beyond her powers, and made up his mind
that she should rest. With sailor zeal and promptitude, he got the
consent of her father, who was glad to be rid of her out of the way
of a new wife; took the trembling, clinging child to the nearest
parson, and made her a pensioner on his small wages in a tiny
lodging of her own. From "Sisters". |
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| Raffaello CARBONI
(1817-1885)
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The old command, "Charge!" was distinctly heard,
and the red-coats rushed with fixed bayonets to storm the stockade.
A few cuts, kicks and pulling down, and the job was done too
quickly for their wonted ardour, for they actually thrust their
bayonets on the body of the dead and wounded strewed about on the
ground. A wild "hurrah!" burst out and 'the Southern Cross' was
torn down, I should say, among their laughter, such as if it had
been a prize from a May-pole. |
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| David CARNEGIE (1871-1900)
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The night of the 10th our supply was down to three
gallons. None could be spared for the horses now, none could be
spared for beef-boiling, only a little for bread, and a drop each
to drink. Every rock-hole we had seen--but one--was dry. Alexander
Spring would be dry. We should have to make for the Empress Spring,
fifty miles beyond. Every thing pointed to the probability of this
sequence of events, therefore the greatest care must be exercised.
The horses would die within a few miles, but the camels were still
staunch in spite of the weakening effect of the sand-ridges, so
there was no need for anxiety. Yet we could not help feeling
anxious; one's nerves get shaky from constant wear and tear, from
want of food and rest. We had been in infinitely worse positions
than this; in fact, with health and strength and fresh camels no
thought of danger would have been entertained, but it is a very
different matter after months of constant strain on body and mind.
Faith--that is the great thing, to possess--faith that all is for
the best, and that all will "pan out" right in the end. |
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William CARRON (1821-1876)
- Narrative of an Expedition Undertaken Under the Direction of
E. B. Kennedy, by William Carron, a survivor of the expedition.
This ebook is available from the Australian Explorers Journals
page.
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Edmund Kennedy led an expedition from Rockingham
Bay in an attempt to reach Cape York by land. Kennedy and eight
other companions on the expedition were either killed by aborigines
or died of starvation. William Carron was one of the survivors. The
text also includes statements by Jackey Jackey, an aborigine who
accompanied the expedition, and by others involved in the
subsequent search and rescue of the survivors. |
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| Mrs. Charles (Ellen) CLACY
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At times, you may see men, half-mad, throwing
sovereigns, like halfpence, out of their pockets into the streets;
and I once saw a digger, who was looking over a large quantity of
bank-notes, deliberately tear to pieces and trample in the mud
under his feet every soiled or ragged one he came to, swearing all
the time at the gold-brokers for "giving him dirty paper money for
pure Alexander gold; he wouldn't carry dirt in his pocket; not he;
thank God! he'd plenty to tear up and spend too." |
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| Marcus CLARKE (1846-1881)
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I sent for Hankey, and asked him about cells. He
says that the gaol is crowded to suffocation. "Solitary
confinement" is a mere name. There are six men, each sentenced to
solitary confinement, in a cell together. The cell is called the
"nunnery". It is small, and the six men were naked to the waist
when I entered, the perspiration pouring in streams off their naked
bodies! It is disgusting to write of such things. --from 'For the
Term of his Natural Life' |
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George COLLINGRIDGE
(1847-1931)
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The discovery of a continental island like
Australia was not a deed that could be performed in a day. Many
years passed away, and many voyages to these shores of ours were
undertaken by the leading maritime nations of Europe, before the
problematic and mysterious TERRA AUSTRALIS INCOGNITA of the
ancients became known, even in a summary way, and its insularity
and separation from other lands positively established. From the
Introduction to The First Discovery of Australia and New
Guinea |
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| David
COLLINS (1754-1810)
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The coast, as the boats drew near Port Jackson,
wore so unfavourable an appearance, that Captain Phillip's utmost
expectation reached no farther than to find what Captain Cook, as
he passed by, thought might be found, shelter for a boat. In this
conjecture, however, he was most agreeably disappointed, by finding
not only shelter for a boat, but a harbour capable of affording
security to a much larger fleet than would probably ever seek for
shelter or security in it. In one of the coves of this noble and
capacious harbour, equal if not superior to any yet known in the
world, it was determined to fix the settlement; and on the 23rd
[January, 1788], having examined it as fully as the time would
allow, the governor and his party left Port Jackson and its
friendly and peaceful inhabitants (for such he everywhere found
them), and returned to Botany Bay. |
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Tom COLLINS (1843-1912)
(Pseudonym of Joseph FURPHY)
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And away circles the colt, slapping at the bit with
his front feet, whilst your historic saddle shines in the sun, and
the stirrup-irons occasionally meet high in the air. And away in
chase go two of the chaps on their bits of stuff. Meanwhile, you
explain to the other two that the spill serves you right for riding
so carelessly; and that, though your soul lusts to have it out with
the colt, a stringent appointment in the township will force you to
clear as soon as you can get your saddle. Such is life. |
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| James COOK (1728-1779)
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Saturday, 28th. In the P.M. hoisted out the Pinnace
and Yawl in order to attempt a landing, but the Pinnace took in the
Water so fast that she was obliged to be hoisted in again to stop
her leakes. At this time we saw several people a shore, 4 of whom
where carrying a small Boat or Canoe, which we imagin'd they were
going to put in to the Water in order to Come off to us; but in
this we were mistaken. Being now not above 2 Miles from the Shore
Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, Tupia, and myself put off in the Yawl, and
pull'd in for the land to a place where we saw 4 or 5 of the
Natives, who took to the Woods as we approached the Shore; which
disappointed us in the expectation we had of getting a near View of
them, if not to speak to them. But our disappointment was
heightened when we found that we no where could effect a landing by
reason of the great Surf which beat everywhere upon the shore. We
saw haul'd up upon the beach 3 or 4 small Canoes, which to us
appeared not much unlike the Small ones of New Zeland. In the wood
were several Trees of the Palm kind, and no under wood; and this
was all we were able to observe from the boat, after which we
return'd to the Ship about 5 in the evening.* (* The place where
Cook attempted to land is near Bulli, a place where there is now
considerable export of coal. A large coal port, Wollongong, lies a
little to the southward.) At this time it fell Calm, and we were
not above a Mile and a half from the Shore, in 11 fathoms, and
within some breakers that lay to the Southward of us; but luckily a
light breeze came off from the Land, which carried us out of
danger, and with which we stood to the Northward. At daylight in
the morning we discover'd a Bay, ( Botany Bay.) which appeared to
be tollerably well shelter'd from all winds, into which I resolved
to go with the Ship, and with this View sent the Master in the
Pinnace to sound the Entrance, while we keept turning up with the
Ship, having the wind right out. At noon the Entrance bore
North-North-West, distance 1 Mile. |
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William COOTE
(1822-1898)
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I believe that, both in the old country and in the
neighboring colonies, as well as in Queensland, the early incidents
of our origin and growth will furnish a by no means useless
contribution to the great store of facts which concern the general
progress of humanity. Unfortunately, few amongst us have time or
opportunity to collect that portion which elucidates either; while
day by day the sources of information are decreasing, and those who
could either furnish it, or indicate where it could be found, are
silently passing away. Thus believing, and thus regretfully
observing, I have collected the material for the first volume, and
wrought as I have been enabled in its arrangement and
distribution. |
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W. H. (William Henry) CORFIELD
1843-1927
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The reasons for this book are as follow:--Whilst
talking over early days with Mr. Courtenay-Luck, the popular
Secretary of the Commercial Travellers' Club, that gentleman
suggested that I should write a paper, to be read at a meeting of
the Historical Society of Queensland.
In writing that paper, so many long-forgotten men, places and
incidents came back to memory that I thought my reminiscences might
prove interesting to others. I may be occasionally incorrect in
dates, or in the sequence of events, but I relate facts and
personal experiences. As they are, I leave them to the kind
consideration of readers. |
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Erle COX (1873-1950)
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There was a man seated at a table in what appeared
to be a vast physical laboratory. On the table, which was littered
with instruments and apparatus, stood a large glass tank in which a
fish could be seen swimming. The silence was broken only by
occasional movements of the man utterly absorbed in the work he was
doing. (Out of the Silence) |
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Karl Reginald CRAMP
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The political story of Australia is not an
obviously interesting story. Great things have happened, but they
have happened gradually, and without observation. There have been
no wars of conquest, for a handful of people were dowered with a
continent; no wars of defence, for the continent was protected by
the fleet of Nelson; no racial conflict, for the people were as
entirely British as the people of the British Isles. The great
battles of freedom had been already fought and won before Australia
came of age. The principles of Democracy and Liberty, of Colonial
Home Rule and Responsible Government, had been recognised as
essential principles of British civilisation. Australians had not
to fight; they had only to ask, and to argue. There were mistakes
and delays and friction; but in general, Australia got the full
privileges of British citizenship as soon as Australia was ready to
use them with advantage to herself. Our story has not been the
story of a people striving to be free. It has been the story of an
infant society gradually growing into the freedom that was
recognised to be its natural birthright. |
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J H L CUMPSTON (1880-1954)
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They had reached the Murray, and Sturt now held the
second key to the riddle of the rivers: the ring was closing
fast--the upper Darling, Macquarie, Lachlan, Murrumbidgee, and now
the Murray--no longer mysteries, but very unromantic realities.
From Charles Sturt. |
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Allan CUNNINGHAM
(1791-1839)
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Amidst the ardour with which geographical research
has been patronized and prosecuted in almost every other portion of
the globe, it is a subject of surprise and regret that so little
anxiety should have been shown by geographers, and even by men of
science in general, to increase our knowledge of the interior of
the Australian continent. But so it is,--that land of anomalies may
still be said to be almost a terra incognita; and, limited as may
be the information which we possess of its internal features, yet,
with the conviction that some concise notice of the way in which
that knowledge has been progressively acquired will not prove
altogether uninteresting to the Geographical Society, I beg to lay
before it, in a brief view, the results of the several expeditions,
which have been employed in inland discovery since the first
settlement was formed at Port Jackson; to which I have added, a few
occasional remarks on the different routes which have been
pursued... |
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Alexander DALRYMPLE
(1737-1808)
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On this the islanders conducted our people farther
up the country, and indeed to a most pleasant place, where they
seated them under a very sightly Belay, on mats of a very
delicate texture, and variety of beautiful colours, treating them
with two cocoa-nuts, one for the chief, and one for our skipper.
In the evening our people returned on board with a hog, and an
account that no water was to be had; they however made so good a
day's work of it, as to get forty pigs, seventy fowls, and
vegetables in abundance, for a few nails, a little fail-cloth,
etc. |
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William DAMPIER (1651-1715)
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The sea-fish that we saw here (for here was no river, land, or
pond of fresh water to be seen) are chiefly sharks. There are
abundance of them in this particular sound, and I therefore give it
the name of Shark's Bay. Here are also skates, thornbacks, and
other fish of the ray kind (one sort especially like the sea-devil)
and garfish, bonetas, etc. Of shellfish we got here mussels,
periwinkles, limpets, oysters, both of the pearl kind and also
eating-oysters, as well the common sort as long oysters; beside
cockles, etc. The shore was lined thick with many other sorts of
very strange and beautiful shells, for variety of colour and shape,
most finely spotted with red, black, or yellow, etc., such as I
have not seen anywhere but at this place. I brought away a great
many of them; but lost all except a very few, and those not of the
best. From 'A Voyage to New Holland, etc. in the year
1699'.
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| Charles DARWIN
(1809-1882)
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The greyhounds pursued a kangaroo rat into a hollow
tree, out of which we dragged it: it is an animal as large as a
rabbit, but with the figure of a kangaroo. A few years since this
country abounded with wild animals; but now the emu is banished to
a long distance, and the kangaroo is become scarce; to both the
English greyhound has been highly destructive. It may be long
before these animals are altogether exterminated, but their doom is
fixed. From 'The Voyage of the Beagle' |
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Aidan de BRUNE (died 1946)
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Thaddeus Keene was well known in Melbourne; Oliver
Manx had seen to that detail. Keene was a great traveller, and had
no relations, few friends, and a host of acquaintances. He
travelled widely. Acquaintances are rarely inquisitive. They ask
questions when met, some of their questions bordering on the
inquisitive; but with absence comes forgetfulness on their part.
Certainly, it was strange that, with Keene's re-appearance in
Melbourne social life, Oliver Manx made one of his frequent
absences from Sydney. Oliver Manx had found Thaddeus Keene useful.
Yet he was only one of quite a number of unattached Australians who
roamed their country, turning up at infrequent intervals in the
cities and towns they call "home." None of them claimed
to have relations, friends, or intimates. They held only one
likeness. Whenever one of them appeared in public in any city, the
others, including Oliver Manx, were absent from their home towns,
on private and unobtrusive business. From: —The Kahm
Syndicate. |
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Louis DE ROUGEMONT
(1847-1921)
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Just picture the scene for yourself. The weird,
unexplored land stretches away on every side, though one could not
see much of it on account of the grassy hillocks. I, a white man,
was alone among the blacks in the terrible land of "Never
Never,"--as the Australians call their terra incognita; and I was
wrestling with a gigantic cannibal chief for the possession of two
delicately-reared English girls, who were in his power. |
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| Don DELANEY see John
SANDES |
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C J DENNIS
(1876-1938)
Dennis is comprehensively covered at Perry Middlemiss'
Literature Site |
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'Er name's Doreen ...Well spare me bloomin' days!
You could er knocked me down wiv 'arf a brick!
Yes, me, that kids meself I know their ways,
An' 'as a name for smoogin' in our click!
I just lines up an' tips the saucy wink.
But strike! The way she piled on dawg! Yer'd think
A bloke was givin' back-chat to the Queen....
'Er name's Doreen.
From The Sentimental Bloke
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| William DERRICOURT (1819-1897)
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On our return, when nearing Pancridge, the horse
cast a shoe, and the other boy and I took him to a forge. The other
boy left me at the forge for a time, and went for a stroll.
By-and-bye we both went back to the boat, and, on reaching Brood,
my companion told me that he had a beautiful long-sleeved plush
waistcoat that his mother had given him. He arranged that when we
got to Wolverhampton I was to take the waistcoat and try and sell
it so that with the money we might go to the play together at
Birmingham. I was told to say that the waistcoat was my own, and
was quite unaware that it had been stolen when I was waiting with
the horse at Pancridge. I went on my errand and, near the
courthouse, I saw a man whom I thought looked a likely purchaser. I
asked him if he would like to buy a waistcoat, assuring him that it
was my own property. He said, "Oh yes, come in and let me have
a look at it." I went with him, when I found to my horror that
I was offering a stolen waistcoat to the constable of the place. He
told me that he was looking for someone of my sort as the coach
from Pancridge had brought notice of the robbery. Thus was I,
though innocent, again laid by the heels in Wolverhampton. |
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William DRAPER (c.1818-1881)
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"NOT GUILTY! My lord, not guilty, I assure
you!"
The speaker was a young man, respectably dressed, with a
countenance somewhat pale, but giving evidence of a determined
will, and a general demeanor which indicated intelligence and good
breeding. Standing in the dock, arraigned before the judge of
assize at Winchester, in a crowded court, with the serious charge
of forgery against him, James Stewart in a firm tone of voice
pleaded thus, and, the plea being recorded, the trial commenced.
The Crown Court in that ancient assize hall is very commodious, and
the galleries are sufficiently capacious to hold several hundred
spectators, but upon this occasion every nook and corner was
occupied. |
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| Suelette DREYFUS
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This copyright work was written in 1997 and
permission has been given to Project Gutenberg to list it. The
author writes, in the Introduction to the book..."This is a book
about the computer underground. It is not a book about law
enforcement agencies, and it is not written from the point of view
of the police officer. From a literary perspective, I have told
this story through the eyes of numerous computer hackers. In doing
so, I hope to provide the reader with a window into a mysterious,
shrouded and usually inaccessible realm. Who are hackers? Why do
they hack? There are no simple answers to these questions. Each
hacker is different. To that end, I have attempted to present a
collection of individual but interconnected stories, bound by their
links to the international computer underground. These are true
stories, tales of the world's best and the brightest hackers and
phreakers. There are some members of the underground whose stories
I have not covered, a few of whom would also rank as world-class.
In the end, I chose to paint detailed portraits of a few hackers
rather than attempt to compile a comprehensive but shallow
catalogue." |
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George DUNDERDALE
(1822-1903)
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"Many truthful sketches of the early colonial life
of squatters, whalers, convicts, diggers, and others who left their
native land and never returned." |
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Edward DYSON (1865-1931)
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Mr. Doyle observed the foreign invasion with mingled feelings of
righteous anger and pained solicitude. He had found fossicking by
the creek very handy to fall back upon when the wood-jambing trade
was not brisk; but now that industry was ruined by Chinese
competition, and Michael could only find relief in deep and earnest
profanity.
From: A Golden Shanty, in "The Golden Shanty"
(short stories).
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| Charles Henry
EDEN (1839-1900)
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Amongst other calamities attendant on this
visitation [of a terrible cyclone] was the loss of a small coasting
schooner, named the 'Eva', bound from Cleveland to Rockingham Bay,
with cargo and passengers. Only those who have visited Australia
can picture to themselves the full horror of a captivity amongst
the degraded blacks with whom this unexplored district abounds; and
a report of white men having been seen amongst the wild tribes in
the neighbourhood of the Herbert River induced the inhabitants of
Cardwell to institute a search party to rescue the crew of the
unhappy schooner, should they still be alive; or to gain some
certain clue to their fate, should they have perished. |
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Havelock ELLIS (1859-1939)
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This Australian Idyll is largely based on
reminiscences of a year (1878) spent as school teacher at the spot
described. The haunting memories of that unique year in my life
still pursued me, on my return to London, amid medical studies at
St. Thomas's Hospital. I attempted at intervals to throw those
memories into a fictional form, and my friend Oliver Schreiner,
interested in my experiment, encouraged me to pursue it. This was
round about the year 1886, some eight years after leaving the real
Sparkes Creek, but while my memories of the life there were still
vivid and precise. The only critical judgment to which I submitted
the Idyll was that of my friend Arthur Symons who was pleased to
find it of the same class as Flaubert's _Contes_. But I put it
aside, making no attempt at publication. Apart from the fact that
it was far removed from the field of my choosen work in life, I
suspected that if the book ever wandered into the real Kanga Creek
it might give offence to people for whom I cherished only friendly
feelings. |
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George William EVANS
(1780-1852)
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Taken from the Historical Records of
Australia, this ebook details Evans' journey to the Bathurst
Plains and his discovery, during a second journey, of the Lachlan
River. |
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Edward John EYRE (1815-1901)
- Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia,
and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound. This ebook
is available from the Australian
Explorers Journals page.
- An account of the manners and customs of the Aborigines and
the state of their relations with Europeans--included in
Journals of Expeditions of Discovery, above.
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We again moved away at dawn, through a country
which gradually become more scrubby, hilly, and sandy. The horses
crawled on for twenty-one miles, when I halted for an hour to rest,
and to have a little tea from our now scanty stock of water. The
change which I had noticed yesterday in the vegetation of the
country, was greater and more cheering every mile we went, although
as yet the country itself was as desolate and inhospitable as ever.
. .In the course of our journey this morning, we met with many
holes in the sheets of limestone, which occasionally coated the
surface of the ground; in these holes the natives appeared to
procure an abundance of water after rains, but it was so long since
any had fallen, that all were dry and empty now. In one deep hole
only, did we find the least trace of moisture; this had at the
bottom of it, perhaps a couple of wine glasses full of mud and
water, and was most carefully blocked up from the birds with huge
stones: it had evidently been visited by natives, not an hour
before we arrived at it, but I suspect they were as much
disappointed as we were, upon rolling away all the stones to find
nothing in it. |
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| Ernest FAVENC (1845-1908)
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In the history of exploration are to be found some
of the brightest examples of courage and fortitude presented by any
record. In the succeeding pages I have tried to bring these
episodes prominently to the fore, and bestow upon them the meed of
history. Ernest Favenc. |
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Barron FIELD (1786-1846)
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The most important discovery, which the following
pages record, is certainly that of the navigable river in Moreton
Bay, four hundred miles to the northward of Port Jackson, since
this is the direction in which it is desirable to extend the colony
of New South Wales. The honour of this discovery has fortunately
fallen to the lot of Mr. Oxley, to indemnify him for his double
disappointment in the termination of the rivers Lachlan and
Macquarie. The wonder is, not that he has discovered it; but that
this adventure should have been reserved for him; for the master of
one of the vessels belonging to the colonial government had been to
Moreton Bay only a few months before Mr. Oxley, for the very
purpose of survey; and Captain Cook, as long ago as the year 1770,
suggested, that "some on board having, in addition to a small
space where no land was visible, also observed that the sea looked
paler than usual, were of opinion that the bottom of Moreton Bay
opened into a river." |
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Matthew FLINDERS (1774-1814)
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There is no probability, that any other detached
body of land, of nearly equal extent, will ever be found in a more
southern latitude; the name Terra Australis will, therefore, remain
descriptive of the geographical importance of this country, and of
its situation on the globe: it has antiquity to recommend it; and,
having no reference to either of the two claiming nations, appears
to be less objectionable than any other which could have been
selected. Had I permitted myself any innovation upon the original
term, it would have been to convert it into AUSTRALIA; as being
more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the
other great portions of the earth.
* * * * *.
After running near an hour in this critical manner, some high
breakers were distinguished ahead; and behind them there appeared
no shade of cliffs. It was necessary to determine, on the instant,
what was to be done, for our bark could not live ten minutes
longer. On coming to what appeared to be the extremity of the
breakers, the boat's head was brought to the wind in a favourable
moment, the mast and sail taken down, and the oars got out. Pulling
then towards the reef during the intervals of the heaviest seas, we
found it to terminate in a point; and in three minutes were in
smooth water under its lee. A white appearance, further back, kept
us a short time in suspense; but a nearer approach showed it to be
the beach of a well-sheltered cove, in which we anchored for the
rest of the night. So sudden a change, from extreme danger to
comparatively perfect safety, excited reflections which kept us
some time awake: we thought Providential Cove a well-adapted name
for this place; but by the natives, as we afterwards learned, it is
called Watta-Mowlee. |
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| John FORREST (1847-1918)
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I now propose to relate my own experiences--the
results of three journeys of exploration, conducted by myself. The
first was undertaken in the hope of discovering some traces of
Leichardt; the second nearly retraced the route of Eyre; the third
was across the desert from Western Australia to the telegraph line
in South Australia. The first journey did not result in obtaining
the information sought for; the second and third journeys were
successfully accomplished.--John Forrest |
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Mary FORTUNE (c.1833-c.1910)
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There are many who recollect full well the rush at
Chinaman's Flat. It was in the height of its prosperity that an
assault was committed upon a female of a character so diabolical in
itself, as to have aroused the utmost anxiety in the public as well
as in the police, to punish the perpetrator thereof. The case was
placed in my hands, and as it presented difficulties so great as to
appear to an ordinary observer almost insurmountable, the
overcoming of which was likely to gain approbation in the proper
quarter, I gladly accepted the task.--Traces of Crime |
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Joseph FOWLES
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The principal object of this Work is to remove the
erroneous and discreditable notions current in England concerning
this City, in common with every thing else connected with the
Colony. We shall endeavour to represent Sydney as it really is--to
exhibit its spacious Gas-lit Streets, crowded by an active and
thriving Population--its Public Edifices, and its sumptuous Shops,
which boldly claim a comparison with those of London itself: and to
shew that the Colonists have not been inattentive to matters of
higher import, we shall display to our Readers the beautiful and
commodious Buildings raised by piety and industry for the use of
Religion. It is true, all are not yet in a state of completion;
but, be it remembered, that what was done gradually in England, in
the course of many ceuturies, has been here effected in the
comparatively short period of sixty years. |
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Sir John FRANKLIN (1786-1847)
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The following pages have been written chiefly for
my friends in Van Diemen's Land in order not to leave them in
ignorance of the steps which I have taken to vindicate the honour
of my late office, and my character as their Governor, from
ex-parte representations on points on which, so long as I exercised
the functions of government, I was precluded from offering any
explanations. John Franklin |
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Miles FRANKLIN
(1879-1954)
Under the pseudonym
"Brent of Bin Bin":
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This was life--my life--my career, my brilliant career! I was
fifteen--fifteen! A few fleeting hours and I would be old as those
around me. I looked at them as they stood there, weary, and turning
down the other side of the hill of life. When young, no doubt they
had hoped for, and dreamed of, better things--had even known them.
But here they were. This had been their life; this was their
career. It was, and in all probability would be, mine too. My
life--my career--my brilliant career!
--From "My Brilliant Career"
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Tobias FURNEAUX
(1735-1781)
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Captain Tobias Furneaux was an English navigator
and Royal Navy officer, who accompanied James Cook on his second
voyage of exploration. He was the first man to circumnavigate the
world in both directions, and later commanded a British vessel
during the American Revolutionary War. This excerpt covers the only
Australian landfall in Cook's second voyage around the world.
[ebook editor] |
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Joseph Furphy (see Tom Collins)
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Arthur GASK (1869-1951)
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...on a beautiful summer's evening towards dusk,
Gilbert Larose, the best known of all the detectives of the great
Commonwealth of Australia, was crouching down behind a small bush
high up upon the sides of Mount Lofty, watching with an annoyed and
frowning face four men who were climbing slowly up the slope
towards him. They were only about two hundred yards away, and
through his binoculars he could discern plainly the expressions
upon their faces. They looked alert and eager, as if they had some
particular and important business on hand. They were sturdy,
thick-set men, and were all armed with stout sticks. They walked
spread out, fanwise, with about ten yards between them, and they
peered intently into all the bushes as they passed. |
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Mary GAUNT (c. 1862-1942)
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It seemed unlikely, certainly. All the anxious days
he had spent seeking the precious metal, and never a sign of gold,
and now, after eighteen months of existence in this desolate hole,
here under his very eyes, was sticking up out of the ground what
looked like a bar of cleanly-melted gold. He was twenty miles to
the south-east of his hut this morning, simply having ridden out in
this direction the night before, because he had nothing else to do,
and he thought he might as well follow the trend of the range
eastward, and see what the country was like. From
Kirkham's Find |
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| Ernest GILES (1835-1897)
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Gibson, having had my horse, rode away in my saddle
with my field glasses attached; but everything was gone--man and
horse alike swallowed in this remorseless desert. The weather was
cool at night, even cold, for which I was most thankful, or we
could not have remained so long away from water. We consulted
together, and could only agree that unless we came across Gibson's
remains by mid-day, we must of necessity retreat, otherwise it
would be at the loss of fresh lives, human and equine, for as he
was mounted on so excellent an animal as the Fair Maid, on account
of whose excellence I had chosen her to ride, it seemed quite
evident that this noble creature had carried him only too well, and
had been literally ridden to death, having carried her rider too
far from water ever to return, even if he had known where it
lay. |
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| Adam Lindsay GORDON (1833-1870)
(Including: Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes; Sea Spray and
Smoke Drift; Miscellaneous Poems; Ashtaroth, A Dramatic Lyric)
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Courage, comrades, this is certain, All is for the
best --
There are lights behind the curtain --Gentiles, let us rest.
As the smoke-rack veers to seaward, From "the ancient clay",
With its moral drifting leeward, Ends the wanderer's lay.
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William Christie GOSSE
(1842-1881)
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I have the honor to...report that leaving the Alice Springs,
April 21st, with a party consisting of four white men, three
Affghans, and a black boy, I travelled along the telegraph line to
latitude 22° 28' S., about forty miles south of Central Mount
Stuart. From this point I followed the Reynolds Range about W.N.W.
for forty-five miles; I was then obliged to turn S.W., passing a
high bluff, piled by Major Warburton, and on to the western
extremity of the MacDonnell Ranges (Giles's Mount Liebig). Here I
was compelled to turn south, crossing Mr. Giles's track several
times, the eastern arm of his Lake Amadeus, and on to a high hill,
east of Mount Olga, which I named Ayers Rock...
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James GRANT (1772-1833)
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To the stranger the harbour of Port Jackson appears
pleasing and picturesque, as he advances up it to the town. A small
island with a house on it, named Garden Island, (which afterwards
became my residence) enriches the view. On the main is Walamoola,
so named by the natives, a rural situation, where Mr. Palmer, the
Commissary, has built a large and commodious house, and bestowed
much labour in cultivating the land round it. Such a house in so
young a Colony excites a degree of surprise in a new comer. The
town of Sydney is much larger and more respectable that can well be
imagined considering the time it has been built. The streets are by
order made broad and strait; each house is generally separated from
the adjoining ones, an excellent regulation in case of fire; few or
any are without gardens; and many of the houses are large and
commodious. When I landed I found that the heavy rain, which I had
experienced some days before, had been equally felt here. The
Hawkesbury River had been swelled almost instaneously to the great
annoyance of the Settlers on its banks. Various were the causes
assigned for the rapid increase of water; some supposed it owing to
the bursting of a cloud in the mountains, which hurried the water
down the level country; others to the overflowing of a lake or
morass, which augmented the currents of all the neighbouring
rivers, for that at Paramatta had also overflown its banks to a
very great height, as I afterwards was shewn by Dr. Thompson, now
the Resident Colonial Surgeon, as almost to be supposed
impossible. |
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Augustus GREGORY
(1819-1905)
and Frank GREGORY
(1821-1888)
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"Numerous inquiries having been made for copies of
the Journals of the Explorations by the Messrs. Gregory in the
Western, Northern, and Central portions of Australia, and as these
journals have hitherto only been partially published in a
fragmentary form, and are now out of print, it has been deemed
desirable to collect the material into one volume, for convenience
of reference, and to place on permanent record some of the earlier
attempts to penetrate the terra incognita which then constituted so
vast a portion of the Australian Continent." Preface to
Journals of Australian Exploration |
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George GREY (1812-1898)
- Journals
of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western
Australia. This ebook is available from the Australian Explorers Journals
page.
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Finding that the man remained absent longer than I
had expected I called loudly to him, but received no answer, and
therefore passed round some rocks which hid the tree from my view
to look after him. Suddenly I saw him close to me breathless and
speechless with terror, and a native with his spear fixed in a
throwing-stick in full pursuit of him; immediately numbers of other
natives burst upon my sight; each tree, each rock, seemed to give
forth its black denizen, as if by enchantment. A moment before, the
most solemn silence pervaded these woods. We deemed that not a
human being moved within miles of us, and now they rang with savage
and ferocious yells, and fierce armed men crowded round us on every
side, bent on our destruction. |
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Walter Burley GRIFFIN
(1876-1937)
The Federal
Capital Report Explanatory of the Preliminary General Plan
(1913)
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Taken altogether, the site may be considered as an
irregular amphitheatre--with Ainslie at the north-east in the rear,
flanked on either side by Black Mountain and Pleasant Hill, all
forming the top galleries; with the slopes to the water, the
auditorium; with the waterway and flood basin, the arena; with the
southern slopes reflected in the basin, the terraced stage and
setting of monumental Government structures sharply defined rising
tier on tier to the culminating highest internal forested hill of
the Capitol; and with Mugga Mugga, Red Hill, and the blue distant
mountain ranges, sun reflecting, forming the back scene of the
theatrical whole. |
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F B GUTHRIE
(1861-1927)
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"Mr. Farrer's self-imposed task of improving
the flour-strength of our wheats and producing rust-resisting and
drought-resisting varieties has greatly influenced both quality and
yield in this, his adopted land, and has materially affected wheat
production in almost every other country." |
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Zane GREY (1872-1939
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Crossing the river on the ferry at Bateman Bay,
from which the wonderful Toll Gates can be seen out at sea, I
conceived an idea that this place had marvelous potentialities for
fishing. As a matter of fact, the place haunted me so that I went
back, motored all around the bay, walked out upon the many wooded
capes that projected far out toward the sentinel Toll Gates,
patrolled the curved sandy beaches, and finally interviewed the
market fishermen. The result was that I broke camp at Bermagui and
chose a lovely site three miles out from Bateman Bay, where we
pitched camp anew. It turned out that the vision in my mind's eye
had been right. This camp was the most beautiful and satisfactory
of all the hundreds of camps I have had in different countries. How
it will turn out from a fishing standpoint remains to be seen. But
I would like to gamble on my instinct. |
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William Mogford HAMLET
(1850-1931)
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Hamlet was an avid walker. In the early 20th Century he walked
twice from Bribane to Sydney and once from Sydney to Melbourne. He
wrote a number of newpaper articles about his trips and these are
gathered together in this ebook.
"Don Dorrigo Carbonera makes a fine sonorous mouthful of a
name, which, if not exactly suggestive of "Castles in
Spain," may nevertheless be here used in respect of the brave
toilers and workers up on the Dorrigo; for whatever their intended
careers may have been, they now at least appear to be, one and all,
veritable timber-cutters and charcoal-burners, every man wielding
his axe and firestick to some purpose. Nowhere else will you see
such a desolating display of blackened and half carbonised timber,
such gaunt hollow stumps, the more dead shells of the old-time
forest trees, their sombre ebony logs lying about all over the
newly fenced paddocks in obstructive confusion, all telling of the
settlers' dogged determination to clear the land at all
costs." (Written on a walk from Brisbane to Sydney in
1907)
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J G (José Guillermo)
HAY (fl. 1906)
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The original intention of the expedition was to
suggest Buckland Hill as the site for a town for the proposed
settlement. This, however, was superseded by Captain Stirling, on
his arrival with the first immigrants, in the ship
"Parmelia", in June, 1829, by placing the capital, Perth,
about twelve miles from the port, at which he settled the town of
Fremantle. The elucidation of the naming of Perth after the
birthplace of Sir George Murray, the then Secretary of State for
the Colonies, in honor of whom also towns in New South Wales,
Tasmania, and Canada were named, and the origin of the naming of
Mount Eliza after Lady Darling, should set aside many absurd
stories for these nomenclatures. |
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| William Gosse HAY
(1875-1945)
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He reached for the comb in the PLUTARCH, and slit
the package. Unfolding this with a slight increase of colour, he
eyed the few words: "Money to hand. Secured boys. EMERALD near dry.
Launch next Saturday. Sail on Wednesday morning, August 22nd. Hang
off Spring Bay on Thursday, where boat will wait near mouth of
creek after dusk." |
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Edward HEAWOOD
(1863-1949)
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Even before the voyage of Magellan, geographers had
a strong belief in the existence of land beyond the southern ocean,
and this was greatly strengthened by the passage of that navigator
through the strait which bears his name, as it was naturally
imagined that the land to the south of the strait formed part of a
great continental mass. Whether or not the ancient and medieval
geographers had to any extent based their ideas on vague rumours of
Australia which may have reached the countries of southern Asia, is
a question which cannot be answered; but it has been held with some
show of reason that statements of Marco Polo, Varthema, and other
travellers, point to a knowledge that an extensive land did lie to
the south of the Malay Archipelago. It is an almost equally
difficult matter, and one which concerns our present subject more
nearly, to decide whether the indications of a continental land
immediately to the south of the Archipelago, to be found in maps of
the sixteenth century, were based at all on actual voyages of
European navigators. |
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J E (Jan
Ernst) HEERES
(1858-1932)
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Heeres book on "The Part Borne by the Dutch..." was published in
1899 to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the
establishment of the Royal Geographical Society of the Netherlands.
Heeres notes in the introduction to the book that the object of
publication was "once more to throw the most decided and fullest
possible light on achievements of our forefathers in the 17th and
18th century, in a form that would appeal to foreigners no less
than to native readers. An act of homage to our ancestors,
therefore, a modest one certainly, but one inspired by the same
feeling which in 1892 led Italy and the Iberian Peninsula to
celebrate the memory of the discoverer of America, and in 1898
prompted the Portuguese to do homage to the navigator who first
showed the world the sea-route to India."
Heeres work is now difficult to access and it is fitting that we
are now able, with the release of this ebook, to once more to
"throw the most decided and fullest possible light on achievements"
of the Dutch in commemorating the first authenticated landing on
Australian soil by Willem Janszoon.
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HENNING (1826-1914)
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...The roads were in a most awful state. The driver
from Penrith to Hartley said he had never seen them so bad. The
ascent of the Blue Mountains on the Penrith side was almost
impassable. We went along for four or five miles with the axle-tree
buried in mud. I cannot think how ever the horses did it at
all.
We passed a carriage stuck in the mud, which two horses had not
been able to pull out, so they had been taken out and were standing
by the side of the road, while a gentleman, up to his knees in mud,
and a stupid Irishman were trying to fasten four bullocks to the
carriage. Our coachman got down and helped them, remarking that
very likely we should want to be dragged out soon. However, we
managed to get along, and only came to grief once. We went through
the bush to avoid the sea of mud in the main road, and one of the
leaders got frightened and turned off among the trees, dragging the
coach against some saplings and nearly upsetting it. The restive
horse was taken out of the harness, and the passengers got out
while the coach was backed out of the scrape. |
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John David
HENNESSEY (1847-1935)
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"The Outlaw" is the story of a convict
turned bushranger, set mainly in the Liverpool Ranges/Patrick's
Plains/Maitland/Morpeth area of New South Wales around 1840. It won
second prize of £400 in a £1,000 novel
competition. |
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G A (George Alfred) HENTY
(1832-1902)
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It was agreed, at once, that more aid would be
necessary, before they could think of attacking the bush rangers;
but all were ready to join in the hunt for them. Therefore it was
decided that Dick Shillito and the two Watsons should each ride, at
once, to neighbouring stations to bring aid. At one of the stations
two more policemen would be found, and as in the pursuit they
should probably pass near other stations, their numbers would swell
as they went. When this was settled, the party sat down to the
meal. |
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J G HILL
The Calvert Scientific
Exploring Expedition (1905)
(compiled by J G Hill)
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Even when it is admitted that the
object of the expedition was only achieved in part, that its
scientific value was further diminished by the compulsory
abandonment of the hundreds of specimens collected, and that its
records are overshadowed by the death of two members of the loyal
little band of adventurers, there is still sufficient interest left
in the undertaking to justify this rescue of the bare details of
the story from the limbo of contemporary newspaper
descriptions. |
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Edwin HODDER
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It was the lifelong wish of Mr. George Fife Angas,
one of the Fathers and Founders of South Australia, that a History
of the Colony of his adoption, and which he was mainly instrumental
in establishing, should be written. To this end he collected a vast
number of documents from all available sources, and for many years
employed a secretary to set them in order, hoping some day to write
the History himself. But that day never came, and in 1879 Mr. Angas
passed away. Among his papers several were found that showed how
intensely keen his desire was that a full and comprehensive
History, giving the story of the rise and progress of the colony,
should be written. His son, the Hon. J.H. Angas, Member of the
Legislative Council of South Australia, determined that the wish
should be fulfilled, and kindly placed in my hands the whole of the
valuable and voluminous papers. Of this material I have availed
myself freely, and I have also drawn from Memoirs, Diaries,
Travels, Parliamentary Debates, as well as from the Colonial
Newspapers. -- From The History of South Australia. |
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| James Francis HOGAN (1855-1924)
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We are now at the close of the first century of
colonization in Australia, and the time is therefore opportune for
an estimate of the influence exercised by the Irish element of the
population on the remarkable growth and development of the Greater
Britain of the South. Having lived in Australia from childhood, I
have endeavored, not I hope without some success, to present in
this volume a faithful panorama of Irish life, Irish history, and
Irish achievements in the land I know and love so well. J F Hogan,
1887. |
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Fergus HUME (1859-1932)
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Truth is said to be stranger than fiction, and
certainly the extraordinary murder which took place in Melbourne on
Thursday night, or rather Friday morning, goes a long way towards
verifying this saying. A crime has been committed by an unknown
assassin, within a short distance of the principal streets of this
great city, and is surrounded by an inpenetrable mystery. |
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Hamilton
HUME and
William HOVELL
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In the course of the day, they again came by
surprise upon a body of natives, consisting of eight men; these
appeared much alarmed, and, on perceiving the bullocks, fled
through a small creek, and concealed themselves among the reeds on
its banks. In the evening, about a mile from the spot where they
had been first seen, the natives again made their appearance, and
approached them with marks of friendship. One of these men dressed
in an old yellow jacket, spoke a few words of English, and had been
at Lake George. They had among them, one iron axe, and four
tomahawks.--The whole party remained with them till dark, when,
except two of their number, they all retired, promising to return
in the morning. |
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John HUNTER
(1737-1821)
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A few days after my arrival with the transports in
Port Jackson, I set off with a six oared boat and a small boat,
intending to make as good a survey of the harbour as circumstances
would admit: I took to my assistance Mr. Bradley, the first
lieutenant, Mr. Keltie, the master, and a young gentleman of the
quarter-deck. During the time we were employed on this service, we
had frequent meetings with different parties of the natives, whom
we found at this time very numerous; a circumstance which I confess
I was a little surprized to find, after what had been said of them
in the voyage of the Endeavour; for I think it is observed in the
account of that voyage, that at Botany-bay they had seen very few
of the natives, and that they appeared a very stupid race of
people, who were void of curiosity. We saw them in considerable
numbers, and they appeared to us to be a very lively and
inquisitive race; they are a straight, thin, but well made people,
rather small in their limbs, but very active; they examined with
the greatest attention, and expressed the utmost astonishment, at
the different covering we had on; for they certainly considered our
cloaths as so many different skins, and the hat as a part of the
head: they were pleased with such trifles as we had to give them,
and always appeared chearful and in good humour: they danced and
sung with us, and imitated our words and motions, as we did theirs.
They generally appeared armed with a lance, and a short stick which
assists in throwing it: this stick is about three feet long, is
flattened on one side, has a hook of wood at one end, and a flat
shell, let into a split in the stick at the other end, and fastened
with gum; upon the flat side of this stick the lance is laid, in
the upper end of which is a small hole, into which the point of the
hook of the throwing stick is fixed; this retains the lance on the
flat side of the stick; then poising the lance, thus fixed, in one
hand, with the fore-finger and thumb over it, to prevent its
falling off side-ways, at the same time holding fast the
throwing-stick, they discharge it with considerable force, and in a
very good direction, to the distance of about sixty or seventy
yards*. Their lances are in general about ten feet long: the shell
at one end of the throwing-stick is intended for sharpening the
point of the lance, and for various other uses. I have seen these
weapons frequently thrown, and think that a man upon his guard may
with much ease, either parry, or avoid them, although it must be
owned they fly with astonishing velocity. |
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| Leonard HUXLEY (1860-1933)
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On this cruise there was an unusual piece of
interest in Kennedy's ill-fated expedition, which the "Rattlesnake"
landed in Rockingham Bay, and trusted to meet again at Cape York.
Happy it was for Huxley that his duties forbade him to accept
Kennedy's proposal to join the expedition. After months of weary
struggles in the dense scrub, Kennedy himself, who had pushed on
for help with his faithful black man Jacky, was speared by the
natives when almost in sight of Cape York; Jack barely managed to
make his way there through his enemies, and guided a party to the
rescue of the two starved and exhausted survivors of the
disease-stricken camp by the Sugarloaf Hill. It was barely time.
Another hour, and they too would have been killed by the crowd of
blackfellows who hovered about in hopes of booty, and were only
dispersed for a moment by the rescue party. |
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Frederick Chidley IRWIN
(1788-1860)
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The purpose of the
following pages is to lay before persons desirous of emigrating a
short, but impartial, statement of the condition of the colony of
Western Australia, commonly called the Swan River Settlement. The
object of the writer is not to exalt its advantages above those of
other colonies. His statements are put forward neither from motives
of private interest, nor to forward the views of any party or
associated body whatever; and he trusts that, however brief, his
statement will be found throughout essentially correct. |
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Robert Logan
JACK
(1845-1921)
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Had the nations outside of Spain and Portugal
admitted the validity of the bull, the greater part of Australia
would have belonged to Portugal, and a slice of the eastern coast,
covering Sydney, Brisbane and Rockhampton, would have been Spanish.
By the treaty (which was a sort of reciprocal Monroe doctrine), the
western half of Australia would have been Portuguese and the
eastern half Spanish. (from Northmost Australia) |
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Messrs. JARDINE
- Narrative of the Overland Expedition of the Messrs Jardine,
from Rockhampton to Cape York, Northern Queensland. This ebook
is available from the Australian
Explorers Journals page.
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The Settlement of Northern Australia has of late
years been of such rapid growth as to furnish matter for a
collection of narratives, which in the aggregate would make a large
and interesting volume. Prominent amongst these stands that of the
Settlement of Cape York, under the superintendence of Mr. Jardine,
with which the gallant trip of his two sons overland must ever be
associated. It was a journey which, but for the character and
qualities of the Leader, might have terminated as disastrously as
that of his unfortunate, but no less gallant predecessor,
Kennedy. |
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Walter JEFFERY
(1861-1922)
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Bending her head of wavy, glossy black hair, the
girl pressed her lips softly upon the white man's hand, and raising
her face again, her eyes followed his, and as she noticed his
intent look, a curious, alarmed expression came into her own
lustrous orbs. |
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Edward JENKS (1861-1939)
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No sane person would attempt to write a complete
history of Australasia in three hundred pages. Having, therefore,
to make a selection, I have fallen back upon the traditions of that
school which regards history as past politics, and politics as
present history. Even with this limitation, I have had to go
lightly over the ground, omitting much that even I know, and,
doubtless, much more of which I am ignorant. I can boast no special
qualification for the task, save that I have spent three years in
Australia, living as an Australian amongst Australians; but I have
not spared to search the best sources of information. |
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Richard JOHNSON (1753-1827)
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I do not think it necessary to make an apology for
putting this Address into your hands; or to enter into a long
detail of the reasons which induced me to write it. One reason may
suffice. I find I cannot express my regard for you, so often, or so
fully, as I wish, in any other way. On our first arrival in this
distant part of the world, and for some time afterwards, our
numbers were comparatively small; and while they resided nearly
upon one spot, I could not only preach to them on the Lord's day,
but also converse with them, and admonish them, more privately. But
since that period, we have gradually increased in number every year
(notwithstanding the great mortality we have sometimes known) by
the multitudes that have been sent hither after us. |
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Edward (Ned) KELLY (1854-1880)
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As soon as I shot Lonigan he jumped up and
staggered some distance from the logs with his hands raised and
then fell he surrendered but too late I asked McIntyre who was in
the tent he replied no one. I advanced and took possession of their
two revolvers and fowling-piece which I loaded with bullets instead
of shot. I asked McIntyre where his mates was he said they had gone
down the creek, and he did not expect them that night he asked me
was I going to shoot him and his mates. I told him no. |
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Henry KENDALL (1839-1882)
Kendall is comprehensively covered at Perry Middlemiss'
Literature Site
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At last the great kingfisher came, and called
Across the hollows, loud with early whips,
And lighted, laughing, on the shepherd's hut,
And roused the widow from a swoon like death. |
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Robert KERR (1755-1813)
- A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels,
Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the
Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea
and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time.
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This remarkable work, of 18 volumes, was published
from 1811 to 1824. The contents of the individual volumes and links
to the ebooks will be found on the Voyages and Travels page. The
collection includes ebooks of the three voyages of James Cook. |
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Phillip Parker KING
(1791-1856)
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The principal object of your mission is to examine
the hitherto unexplored Coasts of New South Wales, from Arnhem Bay,
near the western entrance of the Gulf of Carpentaria, westward and
southward as far as the North-west Cape; including the opening, or
deep bay called Van Diemen's Bay, and the cluster of islands called
Rosemary Islands, and the inlets behind them, which should be most
minutely examined; and, indeed, all gulfs and openings should be
the objects of particular attention; as the chief motive for your
survey is to discover whether there be any river on that part of
the coast likely to lead to an interior navigation into this great
continent. |
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Henry KINGSLEY
(1830-1876)
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Then what a to-do is there. The Vicar jumping about
on the grass, giving all sorts of contradictory advice. The Major,
utterly despairing of ever getting his fish ashore, fighting a
losing battle with infinite courage, determined that the trout
shall remember him, at all events, if he does get away. And the
trout, furious and indignant, but not in the least frightened,
trying vainly to get back to the old root. Was there ever such a
fish?--Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn |
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C H KIRMESS
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[this] is the final result of an attempt on my
part, early in 1907, to write a magazine article dealing with the
dangers to which the neighbourhood of overcrowded Asia exposes the
thinly populated Commonwealth of Australia. At that time, my
thoughts on the subject resembled those of the Australian
multitude: they were disconnected, and more in the shape of a vague
fear than defined clearly. However, when I began to work out my
problem, I soon recognized that it was too vast for intelligible
compression within the limits of an ordinary magazine contribution.
I was quite convinced of this when the central idea of the book
occurred to me--the possibility of a coloured invasion of
Australian territory, organized on such lines that the Australians
would be unable to persuade the heart of the Empire that there was
any invasion. |
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Arthur KITSON
(1860-1937)
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When his apprenticeship had expired he went before
the mast for about three years. In 1750 he was in the Baltic trade
on the Maria, owned by Mr. John Wilkinson of Whitby, and commanded
by Mr. Gaskin, a relative of the Walkers. The following year he was
in a Stockton ship, and in 1752 he was appointed mate of Messrs.
Walker's new vessel, the Friendship, on board of which he continued
for three years, and of which, on the authority of Mr. Samwell, the
surgeon of the Discovery on the third voyage, who paid a visit to
Whitby on his return and received his information from the Walkers,
he would have been given the command had he remained longer in the
mercantile marine. This was rapid promotion for a youth with
nothing to back him up but his own exertions and strict attention
to duty, and tends to prove that he had taken full advantage of the
opportunities that fell in his way, and had even then displayed a
power of acquiring knowledge of his profession beyond the
average. |
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R (Reginald) Hugh KNYVETT
(died 1918)
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I am a scout; nature, inclination, and fate put me
into that branch of army service. In trying to tell Australia's
story I have of necessity enlarged on the work of the scouts, not
because theirs is more important than other branches of the
service, nor they braver than their comrades of other units. Nor do
I want it to be thought that we undergo greater danger than
machine-gunners, grenadiers, light trench-mortar men, or other
specialists. But, frankly, I don't know much about any other man's
job but my own, and less than I ought to about that. To introduce
you to the spirit, action, and ideals of the Australian army I have
to intrude my own personality, and if in the following pages "what
I did" comes out rather strongly, please remember I am but "one of
the boys," and have done not nearly as good work as ten thousand
more. |
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Jacques
LABILLARDIERE (1755-1834)
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In 1791 Labillardière was appointed as a
naturalist to Bruni d'Entrecasteaux's expedition to Oceania in
search of the lost ships of Jean-François de Galaup, comte
de La Pérouse. D'Entrecasteaux failed to find any trace of
the missing expedition, but his ships visited southwest Australia,
Tasmania, the North Island of New Zealand, and the East Indies,
where Labillardière, Claude Riche, Étienne Pierre
Ventenat assisted by gardener Félix Delahaye collected
zoological, botanical and geological specimens, and described the
customs and languages of the local Indigenous Australians.
--From Wikipedia |
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Francis Peter
LABILLIERE (1840-1895)
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It was fortunate, however, that this first attempt
to form a settlement on Victorian soil did not succeed, for thus
the Colony escaped the evils as well as the stigma of a criminal
origin. Ours, as other Colonies might have done, came into
existence and prosperity without the aid of transportation, which,
however beneficial it may at one time have appeared, instead of
accelerating, undoubtedly retarded the growth of Australia. |
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Edward Wilson
LANDOR
(1811-1878)
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That it is the system and not THE MEN who are in fault, is
sufficiently proved by the fact that the most illustrious statesmen
and the brightest talents of the Age, have ever failed to
distinguish themselves by good works, whilst directing the fortunes
of the Colonies. Lord John Russell, Lord Stanley, Mr. Gladstone --
all of them high-minded, scrupulous, and patriotic statesmen -- all
of them men of brilliant genius, extensive knowledge, and profound
thought -- have all of them been but slightly appreciated as
Colonial rulers.
Their principal success has been in perpetuating a noxious
system. They have all of them conscientiously believed their first
duty to be, in the words of Lord Stanley, to keep the Colonies
dependent upon the Mother Country; and occupied with this belief,
they have egislated for the Mother Country and not for the
Colonies. Vain, selfish, fear-inspired policy! that keeps the
Colonies down in the dust at the feet of the Parent State, and yet
is of no value or advantage to her. To make her Colonies useful to
England, they must be cherished in their infancy, and carefully
encouraged to put forth all the strength of their secret
energies.
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William
LANDSBOROUGH (1825-1886)
- Journal of Landsborough's Expedition from Carpentaria, in
Search of Burke and Wills, 1862. This ebook is available from
the Australian Explorers
Journals page.
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The readers of this pamphlet are no doubt aware
that the anxiety entertained for the fate of Burke and Wills led to
the formation of several expeditions in their search. The first of
these was formed in Melbourne and entrusted to the command of Mr.
Howitt. The second in Adelaide, under Mr. McKinlay. The third from
Rockhampton, under Mr. Walker; and the fourth from Brisbane, under
Mr. Landsborough. These several expeditions were organised and
started within a short period of each other. The steamship
Victoria, Commander Norman, was despatched by the Victorian
Government to the Gulf of Carpentaria to assist the explorers in
carrying out their objects. |
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William LANE (See John MILLER)
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| Andrew LANG (1844-1912)
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Everybody has heard about 'Fisher's Ghost.' It is
one of the stock 'yarns' of the world, and reappears now and again
in magazines, books . . . and general conversation. As usually
told, the story runs thus: One Fisher, an Australian settler of
unknown date, dwelling not far from Sydney, disappeared. His
overseer, like himself an ex-convict, gave out that Fisher had
returned to England, leaving him as plenipotentiary. One evening a
neighbour (one Farley), returning from market, saw Fisher sitting
on the fence of his paddock, walked up to speak to him, and marked
him leave the fence and retreat into the field, where he was lost
to sight. The neighbour reported Fisher's return, and, as Fisher
could nowhere be found, made a deposition before magistrates. A
native tracker was taken to the fence where the pseudo Fisher sat,
discovered 'white man's blood' on it, detected 'white man's fat' on
the scum of a pool hard by, and, finally, found 'white man's body'
buried in a brake. The overseer was tried, condemned, and hanged
after confession. |
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John LANG (1816-1864)
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GEORGE GILES was, on the whole, what used to be
termed by the masters of convict servants, a very good man; but on
several occasions he misbehaved, and as Captain Bellamy never
looked over but one offence--namely, the first--he was several
times punished; that is to say, flogged. For five years and some
months he was with Captain Bellamy, and during that period was seen
by the captain every day. |
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| D H LAWRENCE (1885-1930)
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"In a job like this," he said, "a man wants a
mate--yes, a mate--that he can say ANYTHING to, and be absolutely
himself with. Must have it. And as far as I go--for me--you don't
mind if I say it, do you?--Kangaroo could never have a mate. He's
as odd as any phoenix bird I've ever heard tell of. You couldn't
mate him to anything in the heavens above or in the earth beneath
or in the waters under the earth. No, there's no female kangaroo of
his species. Fine chap, for all that. But as lonely as a nail in a
post." |
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Gilbert H LAWSON
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BUTCHER BIRD--Name given the family of Australian shrikes,
distinguished for their habit of hanging prey to "ripen," and for
their powers of song.
GOO-GOO EYES--Affectionate glance.
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Henry LAWSON (1867-1922)
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'Run, Andy! run!' they shouted back at him. `Run!!!
Look behind you, you fool!' Andy turned slowly and looked, and
there, close behind him, was the retriever with the cartridge in
his mouth -- wedged into his broadest and silliest grin. And that
wasn't all. The dog had come round the fire to Andy, and the loose
end of the fuse had trailed and waggled over the burning sticks
into the blaze; Andy had slit and nicked the firing end of the fuse
well, and now it was hissing and spitting properly. From 'The
Loaded Dog' (Joe Wilson and His Mates). |
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Louisa LAWSON
[Dora Falconer] (1848-1920)
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It is but seldom that a man foregoes ambitions, or
changes his life plans because he is a husband and a father. The
circle of the wedding ring spreading and broadening for him closes
in about his wife, bringing with it so many new duties and
responsibilities that time and hands are so full, except in a rare
combination of circumstances, as to leave her without either time
or strength for the cultivation of talents or the pursuing of such
a line of thought as will render her companionable to her husband.
Whether bread and babies are pursuits lower or higher than those
that fall to the lot of the husband is a question not to be decided
here. But every woman in average circumstances who cannot with the
two, satisfy every longing of her soul will certainly find marriage
a failure. Unhappy Love Matches. |
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Caroline LEAKEY
["Oline Keese"] (1827-1881)
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Taking handcuffs from his pocket, the constable
clasped them on Sam, and, shaking him till he was sufficiently
aroused to stand, bade him, with a fierce kick, walk on whilst he
and Bob carried Giles to the barracks. At that moment the bell
rang, and, from every part of the town, road and building parties
were seen returning to their quarters. |
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| Ida LEE (1865-1943)
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The objects for which the Lady Nelson's voyages were undertaken
render her logbooks of more than ordinary interest. She was
essentially an Australian discovery ship and during her successive
commissions she was employed exclusively in Australian waters. The
number of voyages that she made will perhaps never be accurately
known, but her logbooks in existence testify to the important
missions that she accomplished. The most notable are those which
record early discoveries in Victoria: the exploration of the
Queensland coast: the surveys of King Island and the Kent Group:
the visits to New Zealand and the founding of settlements at
Hobart, Port Dalrymple, and Melville Island. Seldom can the
logbooks of a single ship show such a record.
From "The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson."
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LEICHHARDT (1813-1848)
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The natives returned very early to our camp. I went
up to them and made them some presents; in return for which they
offered me bunches of goose feathers, and the roasted leg of a
goose, which they were pleased to see me eat with a voracious
appetite. I asked for Allamurr, and they expressed themselves sorry
in not having any left, and gave us to understand that they would
supply us, if we would stay a day. Neither these natives nor the
tribe of Eooanberry would touch our green hide or meat: they took
it, but could not overcome their repugnance, and tried to drop it
without being seen by us. Poor fellows! they did not know how
gladly we should have received it back! They were the stoutest and
fattest men we had met. |
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| Charles Herbert LIGHTOLLER (1874-1952)
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Now, standing in the middle of the harbour is a
rock, on which is built a fort, known as Fort Dennison (sic), or
more commonly Pinchgut, owing to the starvation diet on which the
convicts were kept whilst confined in the fort. Mounted on this
fort is a huge gun, that covers the whole of the harbour. We were
coming off with a light breeze, clad in our white ducks, thoroughly
enjoying life, and went to pass windward of the fort. The boat did
not seem inclined to lie up to it, and as it was of no consequence
whatever, we ran close under the lee. One of the boys, Watson by
name, lying on his back along one of the thwarts and looking up as
we passed close under the fort, noticed the projecting muzzle of
this huge gun. What a lark, he blurted out, to fire that gun some
night. Wouldn't it shake 'em up? I looked up, and as they say in
Yankeeland, fell for it. It was a proposition that appealed. So,
with each one sworn to secrecy, we set about what proved to be a
task that took over six weeks to accomplish, but it was worth it.
First, there was the powder to get, and, to avoid suspicion, it had
to be obtained in very small quantities. There was fuse to get
also, but before we committed ourselves very deeply, bearing in
mind our very limited exchequer, it behoved us to go off some night
and reconnoiter, and find out what sort of gun it was, and if it
could be fired. For this purpose we commandeered a scow from
Cavill's Baths that lie off the Domain.... |
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David LINDSAY
(1856-1922)
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Queen Victoria's Spring was reached on the
twenty-fifth day at a distance of 393 miles from Mount Squires, and
found to be dry. Our position now was somewhat critical, for the
camels had been twenty-five days without water and were not only
thirsty, but leg-weary. To go north back into the desert was not
possible, and the only safe course to take was to make for the
nearest certain water, which, after consulting the map, was found
to be at Fraser Range, 125 miles distant. It was questionable
whether the camels would travel another week without water. A well
was sunk 15ft. deep and 60 gallons of water obtained, to which we
added 40 gallons out of the casks, enabling the camels to have 2
1/2 galls. each. |
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| Lennie LOWER
(1903-1947)
Lower is comprehensively covered at Perry Middlemiss'
Literature Site |
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"And I--when I have sunk my last pot, when my foot
no more rests on the rail, and old Time calls, 'Six o'clock, sir!'
then carry me to the strains of the Little Brown jug and lay me on
my bier. . .'And in a winding-sheet of vine-leaf wrapt, so bury me
by some sweet gardenside.' Till then. . .Here's luck!" |
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Charles Emanuel LYNE
(1850-1910)
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For nearly half a century Sir Henry Parkes was a
conspicuous figure in Australian public life, and, for much of that
period, by far the most prominent. By very many people he was
regarded as Australia's greatest statesman. Primarily the labours
of his long career were for the advancement of New South Wales, the
colony in which his lot was more directly cast; but many of his
public acts have had a beneficial influence upon the Australasian
colonies as a whole, and, in benefiting Australasia, he assisted
the progress of the British Empire. Throughout his life he was
loyal to the mother land. While faithful to the country of his
adoption, he ever remembered that "the crimson thread of
kinship runs through us all", and, foremost in the movement
for Australian federation, the union he sought was a "union
under the Crown." |
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| M A McCARTER (fl. 1908)
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"Grace, my dear, I think that you acted
unwisely, very unwisely, in leaving 'Looranna,' when old Lawyer
Graham entreated you to remain, and something tells me that he had
some ulterior motive for so urging."
The speaker is Mrs. Carrington, a dignified, elderly lady, who in
her youth must have been very beautiful, for even now, after the
ravages of time, her face bears strong traces of early loveliness.
Over her kind features one can easily discern the imprint of a deep
and recent sorrow. She is addressing her niece, Grace Moore, a
tall, beautiful girl, who is seated on a low stool by her side. The
girl does not answer, but remains silent and thoughtful. |
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Thomas McCOMBIE (1819-1869)
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Dr. Arabin was determined to reach the place, and,
no longer afraid of the water, he spurred his horse down a
frightful descent. When he had reached the bottom of the ravine, he
could perceive the flicker of a light at some distance amongst the
trees. He shouted again to the hut, to ask if it was safe to come
on. |
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John
MacGILLIVRAY
(1822-1867)
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These people appeared to repose the most perfect
confidence in us--they repeatedly visited the ship in their own
canoes or the watering-boats, and were always well treated; nor did
any circumstance occur during our intimacy to give either party
cause of complaint. We saw few weapons among them. The islanders
had their bows and arrows, and the others their spears and
throwing-sticks. As the weather was fine, at least as regarded the
absence of rain, no huts of any kind were constructed; at night the
natives slept round their fires without any covering. During our
stay the food of the natives consisted chiefly of two kinds of
fruit, the first (a Wallrothia) like a large yellow plum, mealy and
insipid; the second, the produce of a kind of mangrove (Candelia)
the vegetating sprouts of which are prepared for food by a process
between baking and steaming. At low-water the women usually
dispersed in search of shellfish on the mudflats and among the
mangroves, and the men occasionally went out to fish, either with
the spear, or the hook and line. |
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John McKINLAY (1819-1872)
- McKinlay's Journal of Exploration in the Interior of
Australia (Burke Relief Expedition). This ebook is available
from the Australian Explorers
Journals page.
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At first blush of dawn wind from same quarter
(east-south-east). Rained heavily all night and to my astonishment,
instead of the creek rising as usual (three and a half inches per
hour) it was now rising five and a half inches and hourly
increasing. Although the creek has in many places overflown its
banks, and consequently a much broader channel, we are completely
surrounded with at least five feet of water in the shallowest place
that we can escape from this by. After a breakfast by daybreak the
animals are immediately sent for and, as the men start for them,
drive before them our sheep for more than half a mile through a
strong current, and swimming three-fourths of the time; they went
over splendidly and were left on a piece of dry land until our
camels and horses came and removed the stores etc., which
fortunately they did with not very many of the things getting wet.
The camels being brought in and loaded and out to where the sheep
were first, I had two of them unloaded and sent back to carry to
the dry ground any of the perishable articles such as ammunition,
flour, tea, and sugar, which they brought in safety; for had it
been put on the horses as usual, and not being able to keep them on
our track, the probability is they would have to swim and
completely destroy the ammunition and injure the other stores; the
camels acted famously and from their great height were as good as
if we had been supplied with boats. |
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Jack McLAREN
(1887-1954)
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Then one day I came again to Thursday Island, the place of
pearls and pearl-shell which sits astride the strait that makes of
New Guinea and Australia two separate lands, and encountered a man
with a proposal which suited me exactly. It was that we should
establish a coconut plantation at Cape York--that is to say, at
Australia's uttermost north, the apex of that tremendous and almost
completely unknown peninsula which, after half a thousand miles of
paralleling the mighty Barrier Reef, thrusts up amid the islands of
Torres Strait and towards New Guinea like a pointing finger.
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Allan MACPHERSON
(1818-1891)
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On looking over some old papers lately, I came
across a journal of mine written upwards of thirty years ago,
giving an account of the many difficulties and dangers which I
experienced in taking up the now well-known pastoral station of
Mount Abundance, in the colony of Queensland; and in the hope of
its having sufficient interest to merit publication, I have
compiled from this old diary the following narrative. |
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Eneas MACKENZIE
(1778-1832)
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On emigration, Mrs. Chisholm has produced, by
indomitable perseverance, a deep impression, the results of which
will long be acknowledged, as it has given life, energy, and moral
character to an important and rising colony. She found the stream
polluted, and she has purified it. The weak she has protected, and
the poor she has sheltered tenderly and affectionately. With a
woman's courage and resolution she has asserted the dignity of her
sex, and caused the unscrupulous voluptuary to shrink appalled, and
respect nature's loveliest creation, although in want and in rags.
The chances, perils, and difficulties of a new far off home she has
reduced; the outset rendered more independent, the voyage one of
health, industry and protection, the reception kind and secure, and
the future prospects of life one of earthly happiness. |
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Emma (Mrs Allan)
MACPHERSON
( 1833-1916)
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As soon as I felt at all equal for any exertion I
was anxious to see a little more of our bush home. Accordingly, on
the evening of the day after our arrival I got up and took a short
ramble of discovery about the cottage and garden, extending my walk
to the banks of the river. On the whole, I was much pleased with
the result of my observations.
Our station, as I have before mentioned, was situated in a
beautiful valley, surrounded by high hills lightly wooded to the
very summits. |
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R H MAJOR
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When, at a period comparatively recent in the
world's history, the discovery was made that, on the face of the as
yet unmeasured ocean, there existed a western continent which
rivalled in extent the world already known, it became a subject of
natural enquiry whether a fact of such momentous importance could
for so many thousands of years have remained a secret. Nor was the
enquiry entirely without response. Amid the obscurity of the past
some faint foreshadowings of the great reality appeared to be
traceable. The poet with his prophecy, the sage with his mystic
lore, and the unlettered seaman who, with curious eye, had peered
into the mysteries of the far-stretching Atlantic, had each, as it
now appeared enunciated a problem which at length had met with its
solution. |
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D D (David Dickinson) MANN
(b. 1775?)
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Since the destruction of this building, [a
play-house] the sources of amusement have been confined to cricket,
cards, water-parties, shooting, fishing, hunting the kangaroo, etc.
or any other pleasures which can be derived from society where no
public place is open for recreations of any description. The
officers of the colony have also built a private billiard-room, by
subscription, for their own use; and if these amusements possess
not that degree of attraction which is attached to dramatic
representations, they cannot, on the other hand, be liable to those
abuses, and produce those injurious consequences, which previously
existed. |
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Frederic MANNING
(1882-1935)
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War is waged by men; not by beasts, or by gods. It
is a peculiarly human activity. To call it a crime against mankind
is to miss at least half its significance; it is also the
punishment of a crime. That raises a moral question, the kind of
problem with which the present age is disinclined to deal. Perhaps
some future attempt to provide a solution for it may prove to be
even more astonishing than the last. |
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Harriet Anne Patchett MARTIN
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It is certainly 'a far cry' from the Antipodes to
England and back again. Yet in the name of my Australian sisters
who have contributed to this little volume, I venture to express a
hope that our 'Coo-ee' may succeed in making itself heard on either
shore, and that its echoes may linger pleasantly around the Bush
Station and by the English fireside. |
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Louisa Anne MEREDITH (1812-1895)
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Opposite the south shore of the Domain, and forming
the other boundary of a beautiful cove, is another similar point or
promontory, called still by the native name of Wooloomooloo (the
accent being on the first and last syllables), on which a number of
elegant villas have been erected by the more wealthy residents in
Sydney, being to that place what the Regent's Park is to London.
The views from many of these are beautiful in the extreme, looking
down into two bays, one on either side, and beyond these to the
town and port, with the magnificent heads of the harbour closing
the seaward prospect. |
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Agnes G MURPHY
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Owing to her many engagements in other countries,
Melba's house in Paris was at this time little more than a
pied-a-terre for her; but she always made a point of being
there during the holidays of her little son, who was at school in
England, and whose home-comings were the brightest light in these
days of ever-growing brilliancy. Every detail that could add to his
wellbeing and increase his none too abundant physical vigour was
the mother's constant care. No matter what the storm or stress of
her professional life, no want of the little lad was too trifling
for her attention. Pictures of the boy in every pose accompanied
her on all her expeditions, and the fortune that had come so
readily to her was doubly prized because of all it would mean in
the future to her idolized only child. |
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John MILLER
(pseudonym of William LANE)
(1861-1917)
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To understand Socialism is to endeavour to lead a
better life, to regret the vileness of our present ways, to seek
ill for none, to desire truth and purity and honesty, to despise
this selfish civilisation and to comprehend what living might be.
Understanding Socialism will not make people at once what men and
women should be but it will fill them with hatred for the unfitting
surroundings that damn us all and with passionate love for the
ideals that are lifting us upwards and with an earnest endeavour to
be themselves somewhat as they feel humanity is struggling to be.
From the Preface to The Workingmans' Paradise. |
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Ethel MILLS
A Box of Dead Roses
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It was about a young wife--the most innocent of
brides, who thought the world of her husband, and had no wish or
look for other men. Yet the house was full of other men in those
days, and they all gave thoughts or looks, more or less, to the
prettiest woman in the district. Every evening she used to stand at
her bedroom door, looking along the verandah, until she saw her
husband returning from his work; and every evening he brought her a
rose from the big bush by the steps. That was during the first
months of her marriage. Next year, the rose-bush bore as abundantly
as ever, but the man often forgot to pick a flower for her; and,
after a time, he forgot altogether. |
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Richard Charles MILLS
(1886-1952)
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I...began to examine the work of that extremely
able group of men who had...developed theories of colonization,
with special reference to Australia, and had succeeded in putting
into practice, though imperfectly, many of their theories, of which
responsible government for colonies was one. The leader of this
group was Edward Gibbon Wakefield, whose name is familiar to every
student of land settlement in Australia. On examining the great
mass of literature, expository and controversial, which surrounds
his theory, I could find no book which seemed to do justice to
Wakefield's achievements in colonization and colonial policy. Much
of what has been written is polemical in character, and many
of the works contemporary with Wakefield are spoilt by an obvious
bias for or against him. Writings which were not guilty of these
defects were for other reasons inadequate.--Preface to The
Colonisation of Australia, 1829-1942. |
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Thomas MITCHELL (1792-1855)
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The same attraction which drew the greatest of
discoverers westward. . .seemed to invite the Australian explorer
northward; impelled by the wayward fortunes of the Anglo-Saxon race
already rooted at the southern extremity of the land whose name had
previously been "Terra Australis incognita." The character of the
interior of that country still remained unknown, the largest
portion of earth as yet unexplored. For the mere exploration, the
colonists of New South Wales might not have been very anxious just
at that time, but when the object of acquiring geographical
knowledge could be combined with that of exploring a route towards
the nearest part of the Indian Ocean, westward of a dangerous
strait, it was easy to awaken the attention of the Australian
public to the importance of such an enterprise. A trade in horses
required to remount the Indian cavalry had commenced, and the
disadvantageous navigation of Torres Straits had been injurious to
it: that drawback was to be avoided by any overland route from
Sydney to the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria. From Journal of
an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia. |
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F W MOLE (1865-1946)
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On this day of destiny he was in a particularly bad
temper. He had been detached with his company to take charge of the
new settlement at Moreton Bay in the remotest corner of his
Majesty's dominions. He was a man of somewhat more than middle
height, slender as a rapier is slender, of a steely, supple
strength. Mounted on a hunter that he had ridden far, for his
jack-boots were splashed with mud and his steel spurs
blood-stained, he looked every inch a cavalry man rather than a
foot soldier. His keen black eyes were upon the figure of Mary
Worthington, as she rode ahead of him, and he hastened to overtake
her. But she, disliking the appearance of him from the quick short
glance she gave him, stopped at a wayside farriers with the
pretence of having her horse's shoes looked over, and the man rode
on into Tavistock. |
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Sir John MONASH
(1865-1931)
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The following pages, of which I began the
compilation when still engaged in the arduous work of Repatriation
of the Australian troops in all theatres of war, were intended to
be something in the nature of a consecutive and comprehensive story
of the Australian Imperial Force in France during the closing
phases of the Great War. I soon found that the time at my disposal
was far too limited to allow me to make full use of the very
voluminous documentary material which I had collected during the
campaign. The realization of such a project must await a time of
greater leisure. So much as I have had the opportunity of setting
down has, therefore, inevitably taken the form rather of an
individual memoir of this stirring period. While I feel obliged to
ask the indulgence of the reader for the personal character of the
present narrative, this may not be altogether a disadvantage.
Having regard to the responsibilities which it fell to my lot to
bear, it may, indeed, be desirable that I should in all candour set
down what was passing in my mind, and should attempt to describe
the ever-changing external circumstances which operated to guide
and form the judgments and decisions which it became my duty to
make from day to day. |
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Patrick F.
(Cardinal) MORAN, Archbishop of Sydney
(1830-1911)
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...the opinion very generally prevailed that the
Island of Santo, the chief island of the New Hebrides, was the
Great Land discovered by De Quiros. In the History of the
Catholic Church in Australia I ventured to dissent from that
opinion, and since then several papers bearing on the subject have
appeared in the public press and in the Proceedings of the
Geographical Society of Melbourne. |
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Edward E MORRIS (1843-1902)
A Dictionary of Austral
English
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Stonewall , v. intr.
(1) A Parliamentary term: to make use of the forms of the House so
as to delay public business.
(2) To obstruct business at any meeting, chiefly by long-winded
speeches.
(3) To play a slow game at cricket, blocking balls rather than
making runs.
1876. 'Victorian Hansard,' Jan., vol. xxii. p. 1387:
"Mr. G. Paton Smith wished to ask the honourable member for
Geelong West whether the six members sitting beside him (Mr. Berry)
constituted the 'stone wall' that had been spoken of? Did they
constitute the stone wall which was to oppose all progress--to
prevent the finances being dealt with and the business of the
country carried on? It was like bully Bottom's stone wall. It
certainly could not be a very high wall, nor a very long wall, if
it only consisted of six."
1884. G. W. Rusden, 'History of Australia,' vol. iii. p.
405:
"Abusing the heroic words of Stonewall Jackson, the
Opposition applied to themselves the epithet made famous by the
gallant Confederate General."
1894. 'The Argus,' Jan. 26, p. 3, col. 5:
"The Tasmanians [sc. cricketers] do not as a rule
stonewall."
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| G E (George Ernest) MORRISON
(1863-1920)
|
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In the first week of February, 1894, I returned to
Shanghai from Japan. It was my intention to go up the Yangtse River
as far as Chungking, and then, dressed as a Chinese, to cross
quietly over Western China, the Chinese Shan States, and Kachin
Hills to the frontier of Burma. The ensuing narrative will tell how
easily and pleasantly this journey, which a few years ago would
have been regarded as a formidable undertaking, can now be
done. |
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| Samuel MOSSMAN and Thomas BANISTER
|
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...although changes are rapidly taking place
in these young communities, yet we are confident that the
traveller, with our book in his hand, some ten or even twenty years
hence, will easily recognise the various cities, towns, districts,
and estates herein described, however greatly they may have
increased in extent and population; and we flatter ourselves that
the tenour of our remarks on the social and political condition of
the people are based upon those sound principles of human nature
which will apply for all time. So that the intending colonist, who
may be guided by our statements in his selection of a spot for his
future labours, will find that we have neither exaggerated nor
misrepresented the country or the inhabitants of any one
locality. |
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James MUDIE (1779-1852)
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The full title of this book is The Felonry of New South
Wales, being a Faithful Picture of the Real Romance of Life in
Botany Bay with Anecdotes of Botany Bay Society. Mudie's entry
in the Australian Dictionary of Biography describes the book
as "an attack on all whom he fancied had opposed him in the
colony. He also appeared before the select committee on
transportation; though much of his evidence was removed from the
report, enough remains to reveal his distorted mind. In 1840 Mudie
returned to Sydney [he had gone to London before publication of the
book], where he found himself no longer welcome, for his vindictive
comments had lost him old friends. John Kinchela, son of the judge
who had been maligned in the book, publicly horsewhipped Mudie in
Sydney, and, when Mudie sued him, the £50 damages imposed on
Kinchela were promptly paid by a subscription in the court. In 1842
Mudie returned to London, where he lived until his death on 21 May
1852 at Tottenham."
(http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mudie-james-2487)
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Samuel MULLEN
|
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It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the events which
crowded the remainder of the week. How Friday evening brought
tidings that the enemy were bearing down upon the Heads, and how
the fleet went off to engage them. How the land forces hurried off
to the same quarter. How on Saturday it came out that the
threatened attack on the Heads was only a feint after all, and that
the main portion of the expedition had effected a landing at
Westernport, and were strongly entrenched near Hastings, and how
the troops were hurried back to Melbourne, and then on to
Mordialloc to intercept the enemy's march. All this is matter of
history, and need not be detailed here. |
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| Philip
Edward MUSKETT (?-1909)
|
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Although this work fully deals with all the many
matters connected with the art of living in Australia, its
principal object is the attempt to bring about some improvement in
the extraordinary food-habits at present in vogue. For years past
the fact that our people live in direct opposition to their
semi-tropical environment has been constantly before me. As it will
be found in the opening portion of the chapter on School Cookery,
the consumption of butcher's meat and of tea is enormously in
excess of any common se nse requirements, and is paralleled nowhere
else in the world. |
| N
O |
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Hume NISBET (1849-1923)
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The Professor was of that peculiar craft which
flourished so much during the earlier centuries, and has more or
less flourished ever since under various disguises. He belonged to
the tribe of the witch of Endor, that profession of seers and
fore-tellers whom King Saul tried to put down in his vigorous and
virtuous years, and afterwards weakly consulted in his decline; the
same craft which that modern Solomon, King James I. of England, so
rigorously hunted to death, and which might have died naturally
only for the efforts of the Pschychological Society, and that able
editor of Border-land, the discoverer of the fourth dimension. |
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Charles NORDHOFF
(1887-1947) and
James Norman HALL (1887-1951)
- The Bounty Trilogy
(Wyeth Edition, 1945)
Comprising the Three Volumes:
Mutiny on the Bounty (1932)
Men Against the Sea (1933)
Pitcairn's Island (1934)
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On the twenty-third of December, 1787, His
Majesty's armed transport Bounty sailed from Portsmouth on
as strange, eventful, and tragic a voyage as ever befell an English
ship. Her errand was to proceed to the island of Tahiti (or
Otaheite, as it was then called), in the Great South Sea, there to
collect a cargo of young breadfruit trees for transportation to the
West Indies, where, it was hoped, the trees would thrive and thus,
eventually, provide an abundance of cheap food for the negro slaves
of the English planters.
The events of that voyage it is the purpose of this tale to unfold.
Mutiny on the Bounty, which opens the story, is concerned
with the voyage from England, the long Tahiti sojourn while the
cargo of young breadfruit trees was being assembled, the departure
of the homeward-bound ship, the mutiny, and the fate of those of
her company who later returned to Tahiti, where the greater part of
them were eventually seized by H. M. S. Pandora and taken
back to England, in irons, for trial. |
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John O'BRIEN (Patrick Joseph
HARTIGAN) (1879-1952)
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"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
In accents most forlorn,
Outside the church, ere Mass began,
One frosty Sunday morn.
The congregation stood about,
Coat-collars to the ears,
And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,
As it had done for years.
"It's looking crook," said Daniel Croke;
"Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,
For never since the banks went broke
Has seasons been so bad.". . .
From SAID HANRAHAN. |
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John Boyle
O'REILLY (1844-1890)
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"May the Lord help Moondyne Joe this day," said
another, "for he's chained to the stirrup of the only man living
that hates him."
The sympathizing gang looked after the party till they were
hidden by a bend of the road; but they were silent under the eye of
their warder. |
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Sibella Macarthur ONSLOW
(1871-1943)
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"It is not intended that this volume, which
was almost finished for publication by my Mother before she died in
England in 1911, should be taken as a life of John Macarthur of
Camden. Its object is rather to place finally on record an
authentic account of John Macarthur's connection with the
introduction of Fine Wool into Australia, and of the keen interest
he took in that industry and in all that concerned the welfare of
the infant colony which he had adopted as his home. It has been
compiled chiefly from letters and authenticated copies of letters
found at Camden Park, and from MS. notes left by James and William,
the sons of John Macarthur. All of these papers have been literally
reproduced throughout; but other papers have been used and books
quoted, when necessary, to link up the original materials into a
connected history." |
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| Ned OVERTON
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|
This work includes extracts from Historical
Records of Australia, Historical Records of New South
Wales, History of New South Wales From its First Discovery
to the Present Time (1811), by G. Paterson, and Proceedings
of a General Court-Martial (1811) relating to Col. George
Johnston. It includes biographical details of the main
Protagonists, William Bligh, George Johnston and John Macarthur,
together with details of the mutiny and trial. |
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| John OXLEY (1785-1828)
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. . .we passed over an excellent and rich country;
alternately thick brush and clear forest, with small streams of
water for near four miles more, when, to our great joy and
satisfaction, we arrived on the sea-shore about half a mile from
the entrance of what we saw (with no small pleasure), formed a port
to the river which we had been tracing from Sea View Mount. Thus,
after twelve weeks travelling over a country exceeding three
hundred and fifty miles, in a direct line from the Macquarie River,
without a single serious fatality, we had the gratification to find
that neither our time nor our exertions had been uselessly
bestowed; and we trusted that the limited examination, which our
means would allow us to make of the entrance of this port, would
ultimately throw open the whole interior to the Macquarie River,
for the benefit of British settlers. We pitched our tent upon a
beautiful point of land, having plenty of good water and grass; and
commanding a fine view of the interior of the port and surrounding
country. |
| P
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Edward PALMER (d. 1899)
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The writer came to Queensland two years before
separation, and shortly afterwards took part in the work of outside
settlement, or pioneering, looking for new country to settle on
with stock. Going from Bowen out west towards the head oi the
Flinders River in 1864, he continued his connection with this
outside life until his death in 1899. Many of the original
explorers and pioneers were known to him personally; of these but
few remain. This little work is merely a statement of facts and
incidents connected with the work of frontier life, and the
progress of pastoral occupation in the early days. |
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| Gilbert PARKER
(1862-1932)
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Volumes 2 and 3 contain
stories which relate to Australia. |
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| K. Langloh PARKER
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Oolah the lizard was tired of lying in the sun,
doing nothing. So he said, "I will go and play." He took his
boomerangs out, and began to practise throwing them. While he was
doing so a Galah came up, and stood near, watching the boomerangs
come flying back, for the kind of boomerangs Oolah was throwing
were the bubberahs. They are smaller than others, and more curved,
and when they are properly thrown they return to the thrower, which
other boomerangs do not. From 'Australian Legendary Tales' (The
galah, and Oolah the lizard). |
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| Alice Fox PARRY (c.1903-1951)
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It was not such a simple procedure as they had
imagined. There were certainly plenty of farms but these were
either too small or too large, too remote from civilisation, or too
expensive. At last, however, they succeeded in finding something
which they thought would fit their needs. Situated in a
fruit-growing district in the heart of mountainous country about
120 miles from Melbourne, the property had come on the market owing
to the death of the owner, whose heir was disinclined to continue
working the place, and was prepared to lease it with an option to
purchase at the end of six months. They made hurried preparations
for departure. Furniture had to be sold, suitable clothing bought
and numerous articles for kitchen and household use, which had not
been necessary in a flat, but which they considered would be
essential for the country. The boys proved but broken reeds. Their
heads in the clouds, their pockets stuffed with literature supplied
by a benevolent if somewhat indiscriminate Government bureau. |
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A. B. 'Banjo' PATERSON
(1864-1941)
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When they reached the mountain's summit, even
Clancy took a pull.
It well might make the boldest hold their breath;
The wild hop scrub grew thickly, and the hidden ground was full
Of wombat holes, and any slip was death.
From 'The Man from Snowy River' |
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Charles William PECK (1875-1945)
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Time was when the story-teller was an honoured man,
when he dressed for his part, when the young people were educated
in the lore of the land and the law of the land, by means of
legend. But there is so much white blood in the people that
practically none wish to bear the stories of the "Alcheringa," and
so the stories have faded. But not all. |
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| Ethel PEDLEY (c1860-1898)
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The day Dot had lost her way she had been threading
beads, and she still had upon her finger a ring of the pretty
coloured pieces of glass. She saw the old Satin Bird look at this
ring longingly, so she pulled it off, and begged that it might be
added to the other decorations. It was instantly given the place of
honour--over the entrance and above the piece of milk tin. |
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Emily PELLOE
(1878-1941)
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Orchids are usually termed the aristocrats of plant
life. The presence of over 130 species in Western Australia adds
considerable interest to the study of her magnificent and
world-famous flora.
West Australian orchids, which are practically all terrestrial,
cannot be compared to some found in Brazil, the Malay States,
India, and other tropical places, for size, vividness of colour,
and bizarre marking. But their delicate tints, dainty fragility of
form, the curious structure of many of the species, and their
methods of fertilisation, constitute beauty that endears them to
young and old, and characteristics that fascinate the
botanist. |
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| Brian PENTON
(1904-1951)
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Cabell frowned at the table. He knew that McGovern was weaving a
web round him, but how and where he did not know. McGovern's face,
at once lazily cheerful and slyly calculating, told him nothing. He
fidgeted with the meat-knife for a second or two, then dug it deep
into the table. Words impatiently escaped him again. "You must be a
monster, an absolute maniac, if you haven't got some purpose
treating him like that." He brushed the hair out of his eyes with a
gesture of helplessness. "Nobody could be so brutal, not even in
this country."
"Ah!" McGovern rose and stretched himself, smiled ironically.
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Francois PERON
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Of the five zoologists appointed by the government,
two remained in the Isle of France: two others who were taken ill
at Timor, died through the fatigues of the second campaign, before
they were able to reach, as it were, the shores which they were to
explore. M. PERON being, therefore, the only one of his colleagues
who was left, redoubled his zeal and activity. M. LESUEUR joined
his efforts with those of his friend, and by the exertions of both,
was prepared the valuable zoological collection which we now
possess. More than one hundred thousand specimens of animals, large
and small, are contained in it; amongst which are several important
genera. There are also many more to be described, and the number of
new species, according to the report of the professors of the
museum, is upwards of two thousand five hundred. Thus by referring
to the amount of those discovered by COOK, in his second voyage; as
well as CARTERET, WALLIS, FURNEAUX, MEARS, and even VANCOUVER, we
shall find that Messrs. PERON and LESUEUR alone, have discovered
more new animals than all the naturalist voyagers of our
times. |
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| Arthur PHILLIP (1738-1814)
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The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany
Bay--This is an account of the voyage of the First Fleet, which
sailed from England in 1787 and arrived in New South Wales on 26
January, 1788. This date is now commemorated as Australia Day.
Arthur Phillip was the first Governor of the new colony. |
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| John PINKERTON (1758-1826)
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On the 24th of the same month, being in the
latitude of 42 degrees 25 minutes south, and in the longitude of
163 degrees 50 minutes, I discovered land, which lay
east-south-east at the distance of ten miles, which I called Van
Diemen's Land. The compass pointed right towards this land. The
weather being bad, I steered south and by east along the coast, to
the height of 44 degrees south, where the land runs away east, and
afterwards north-east and by north. In the latitude of 43 degrees
10 minutes south, and in the longitude of 167 degrees 55 minutes, I
anchored on the 1st of December, in a bay, which I called the Bay
of Frederic Henry. I heard, or at least fancied I heard, the sound
of people upon the shore; but I saw nobody. From 'The Voyage of
Francis Pelsart' |
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Rosa PRAED (1851-1935)
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...A long account followed of the bride's family
connections, in which the biographer touched upon the accident of
sex that had deprived her of the hereditary honours; the ancient
descent of the Gavericks, with a picture of the old Irish castle
where Lady Bridget had been brought up--and so forth, and so forth.
Mrs Gildea sighed as she read, and pictured in her imagination the
wild wastes of the Never-Never Land and the rough head-station
which was to be Lady Bridget's home. |
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Ambrose PRATT
(1874-1944)
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No man now living can either authenticate or
authoritatively dispute the claim put forward in these memoirs. Did
Daniel Kelly survive the Glenrowan tragedy, and was he actually
saved, as is related by his brother? It is not my place to venture
an opinion. Curious readers must answer the question for
themselves... [From Dan Kelly Outlaw] |
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Weston Andrew PRICE
(died 1948)
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The Australian Aborigines constitute one of the
most unique primitive races that have come out of the past into our
modern times and they are probably the oldest living race. We are
particularly concerned with those qualities that have made possible
their survival and cultural development. |
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A J RICHARDSON
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An account of this expedition is also given by
F and A JARDINE |
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Henry
Handel RICHARDSON
(1870-1946)
(Richardson's works are comprehensively covered by Perry Middlemiss
at his Literature Site )
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"If I only think what it would be like to be fixed
up and settled, and able to live in peace, without this eternal
dragging two ways . . . just as if I was being torn in half. And
see Mother smiling and happy again, like she used to be. Between
the two of you I'm nothing but a punch-ball. Oh, I'm fed up with
it! . . . fed up to the neck. As for you . . . And yet you can sit
there as if you were made of stone! Why don't you SAY something?
BETTY! Why won't you speak?" From 'Two Hanged Women'. |
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Max RITTENBERG
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The clerk who lives out his life in the
rabbit-warren of the city of London by day, and in a cheap,
pretentious, red-brick suburb by night, believes firmly that
outside London not much matters. He lumps together the Canadian,
the South African, the Australian, and the New Zealander under the
slighting category of "colonials." He imagines them bowing
themselves humbly before the majesty of the Londoner, taking their
cues from London and reverencing it as the fount of all wisdom and
might and wealth. |
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Morley ROBERTS (1857-1942)
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...He saw at last that this coat and his high hat
alone were insufficient for civilisation. For full dress in a
corroboree it might do. Unconsciously, he was so wrought upon by
the purpose for which the coat had been built that he determined to
reserve it for parties in the seclusion of the bush, where any
merriment could be rightly checked by a crack from his waddy. He
planted it carefully in a hollow log, and, having inserted himself
with as much care into his discarded rags, he wondered off into the
town. He got very intoxicated that night, and determined to have a
party all by himself. |
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John Septimus ROE
(1797-1878)
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Our horses having now been two days without water,
and eating but sparingly for want of it, I became anxious to obtain
a supply for them, and fortunately succeeded next morning by
digging in a small water-course we had followed down to the
eastward. Here their pressing thirst was in a slight degree
alleviated by ½ a bucket each of a red liquid, which was,
nevertheless, fresh, and before the heat of the day came on we
fortunately found an abundant supply of good water, in small pools
in the midst of thickets and scrub, where little expected. The rush
of the poor horses to it was so sudden and uncontrollable that they
were all in the midst of the pool in an instant; and two of them
carrying heavy loads were with difficulty unloaded and got out
again. By this time we had passed to the S. side of the range, and
found a continuation of the fresh pools in a water-course which
descended from its south-eastern slopes; there was, however, a
total absence of grass at this time, although there was reason to
believe some good grass had covered the hill-sides previous to the
last fires, which had swept all minor vegetation away, and left
standing only that close thicket and scrub we heartily wished had
shared the same fate. |
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Henry Ling ROTH
(1855-1925) [as translator]
|
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This work is notworthy for its account of,
probably, only the second visit to Van Diemen's Land by Europeans.
Julien-Marie Crozet captained their ship after the murder of
Marc-Joseph (not Nicholas Thomas) Marion Dufresne in New Zealand.
Appendix III contains a brief reference to the literature of New
Zealand. (ebook editor.) |
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Charles ROWCROFT (1798-1856)
|
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The increasing difficulty of maintaining a family
in England, in which the competition for mere subsistence has
become so keen; and the still greater difficulty of providing for
children when their maturer years render it imperative on the
parent to seek for some profession or calling on which they may
rely for their future support, has excited among all classes a
strong attention towards the colonies of Great Britain, where
fertile and unclaimed lands, almost boundless in extent, await only
the labour of man to produce all that man requires. |
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| Steele RUDD (1868-1935)
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Our selection adjoined a sheep-run on the Darling
Downs, and boasted of few and scant improvements, though things had
gradually got a little better than when we started. A verandahless
four-roomed slab-hut now standing out from a forest of box-trees, a
stock-yard, and six acres under barley were the only evidence of
settlement. A few horses--not ours--sometimes grazed about; and
occasionally a mob of cattle--also not ours--cows with young
calves, steers, and an old bull or two, would stroll around, chew
the best legs of any trousers that might be hanging on the log
reserved as a clothes-line, then leave in the night and be seen no
more for months--some of them never. From On Our
Selection. |
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Henry Stuart RUSSELL
(1818-1889)
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An account of the first exploring journeys to and
over Darling Downs: the earliest days of their occupation; social
life; station seeking; the course of discovery, northward and
westward; and a resumé of the causes which led to separation
from new south wales. with portrait and fac-similes of maps, log,
&c., &c. |
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William Clark RUSSELL
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"New Holland," he [Dampier] says,
"is a very large tract of land. It is not yet determined
whether it is an island or a main continent; but I am certain that
it joyns neither to Africa, Asia, or America." Why he is
certain he does not tell us, but he is too sagacious to err, though
whilst he thus thinks, all that he sees of the vast territory is
"low land with sandy banks against the sea." He devotes
several pages to descriptions of the natives, telling us that they
have no houses, that they go armed with a piece of wood shaped like
a cutlass, that their speech is guttural, that in consequence of
the flies which tease and sting their faces, they keep their
eyelids half closed; and so forth. |
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John SANDES
(1863-1938)
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The captain's eyes ranging swiftly round the room,
fell on Tristram standing up to his full height with his eyes
blazing out under the dark mark on his white forehead, and with a
fearful gash across his cheekbone. Black-eyed Poll stood before
him, clinging to his arm. At the feet of the pair of them lay the
motionless body of Jim the Sealer, with Kitty sobbing wildly over
him. A Bush Bayad. |
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Henry SAVERY (1791-1842)
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Five and twenty years ago, New South Wales was not,
what it has since become, an important English Colony, but partook
more of the nature of a mere penal settlement for the reception of
offenders, transported from the Mother Country, and was under a
form of Government, precisely in keeping with this character.
Still, some of the properties belonging to it, and which have
subsequently served to exalt it to its present station, were known
and appreciated; and scarcely was the anchor cast, than Quintus
availed himself of every opportunity that the intercourse with the
shore permitted, towards acquainting himself with such particulars,
as he fancied might help to give a direction to his future
movements. |
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Sir Ernest SCOTT(1867-1939)
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All Sydney people, and most of those who have
visited the city, have seen the tall monument to Laperouse
overlooking Botany Bay. Many have perhaps read a little about him,
and know the story of his surprising appearance in this harbour six
days after the arrival of Governor Phillip with the First Fleet.
One can hardy look at the obelisk, and at the tomb of Pere Receveur
near by, without picturing the departure of the French ships after
bidding farewell to the English officers and colonists. Sitting at
the edge of the cliff, one can follow Laperouse out to sea, with
the eye of imagination, until sails, poops and hulls diminish to
the view and disappear below the hazy-blue horizon. From
'Laperouse.' |
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George Firth SCOTT (c.1862-1935)
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There had been three years of drought, more or less
severe, over that portion of South Australia where Curriewildie
Station was situated; and what with the stock dying off in
thousands for want of food and water, and the damage done to fences
and such buildings as an outlying station boasts by bush fires, the
revenue returns sent in by the manager to the owner were not
exhilarating reading. She, poor old lady, was a resident in
England, and had been so during the ten years which had elapsed
since her husband, the original owner of the station, had died.
There had been some heavy amounts sent home before the drought set
in, and that, perhaps, was the reason why she took it into her head
that we who were employed on the property were robbing her. Any
way, that is what we thought, when one day, without a word of
warning, a young, fresh-faced Englishman arrived at the head
station with all the necessary documentary evidence to prove to
us--that is, Tom Smiles, the manager, and myself, the
overseer--that he had been sent out by Mrs. Halliday to take
immediate possession from us and send us about our business.
--The Last Lemurian |
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| Percival SERLE (1871-1951)
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The Dictionary took more than twenty years to
complete and contains more than one thousand biographies of
prominent Australians or persons closely connected with Australia.
Serle comments in the Preface that "I have endeavoured to make the
book worthy of its subject. It would have been better could I have
spent another five years on it, but at seventy-five years of age
one realizes there is a time to make an end." |
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Ernest
SHACKLETON
(1874-1922)
Go to the South Pole site for more information about
Shackleton and South Pole exploration.
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When I returned from the Nimrod Expedition on which
we had to turn back from our attempt to plant the British flag on
the South Pole, being beaten by stress of circumstances within
ninety-seven miles of our goal, my mind turned to the crossing of
the continent, for I was morally certain that either Amundsen or
Scott would reach the Pole on our own route or a parallel one.
After hearing of the Norwegian success I began to make preparations
to start a last great journey---so that the first crossing of the
last continent should be achieved by a British Expedition.
We failed in this object, but the story of our attempt is the
subject for the following pages, and I think that though failure in
the actual accomplishment must be recorded, there are chapters in
this book of high adventure, strenuous days, lonely nights, unique
experiences, and, above all, records of unflinching determination,
supreme loyalty, and generous self-sacrifice on the part of my men
which...still will be of interest to readers who now turn
gladly...to read...the tale of the White Warfare of the South. The
struggles, the disappointments, and the endurance of this small
party of Britishers, hidden away for nearly two years in the
fastnesses of the Polar ice, striving to carry out the ordained
task...make a story, which is unique in the history of Antarctic
exploration. From "South" |
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Edward Owen Giblin SHANN
(1884-1935)
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The scene of the new beginning here studied was a
distant and at first despised part of the dowry of that fairest
mistress "Trade", for whom Britain, Holland and France
long fought. It was peopled first by outcasts, rebels and
adventurers, stiffly governed for two generations by British
officials, and to this day is largely financed by the British
middle class. For a full century the little communities were
outworks of the industrial revolution in Britain. In clearing the
crowded gaols, in producing raw materials and food for the
city-dwellers of the old land, they played a role of increasing
importance in the grand speculation of industrialism--that
experiment on which the British people have staked their capital,
their mighty energy, their very life-blood. Australia emerged from
the degradation of convictism by taking the place for which Spain
had proved inadequate in the divided tasks of growing and
manufacturing wool, both formerly discharged by Britain herself.
(From the Preface to An Economic History of
Australia.) |
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John J SHILLINGLAW
(1831-1905)
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...the archives of the Public Record Office of
England have been successfully ransacked by the son of an early
Victorian colonist, who has lately published the result of his five
years' painstaking research. To Mr. Labilliere belongs the credit
of having gathered from the vast collection of State Papers
preserved in the Colonial and Admiralty offices in London most of
the missing records; and, for the first time, we read in his
volumes the true story of the first discovery and subsequent
exploration of this province, given in the exact words of the men
who did the work. But for some of these missing documents Mr.
Labilliere sought in vain; and the Journals of Grimes and Knopwood,
now published, are of that number. These fill up gaps in his
collection, and their value will be best seen when read in
connection with his full and clear narrative, which at the same
time has rendered it unnecessary in this place to do more than
sketch-in a few outlines left by Mr. Labilliere untouched. [See
Labilliere, above] |
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Samuel SIDNEY
(1813-1883)
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The Historical section contains, in twenty
chapters...a sketch of the discovery and foundation of the Three
Colonies, and the principal political and social events in their
respective careers, between the landing of the first fleet in Port
Jackson and the opening of the gold mines at Mount Alexander. In
the preparation of the first seven chapters...I had, in addition to
the oral information of old colonists and valuable MSS., the
assistance of the works of Collins, Wentworth, &c. The
remaining thirteen chapters, which include the administrations of
Governors Bourke, Gipps, and Fitzroy, in New South Wales: the Land
Question; Emigration Transportation; the Constitutional Contests of
the first Australian Representative Council; and the whole History
of the Colonisation of South Australia, are in the strictest sense
of the term original. |
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Helen de Guerry SIMPSON
(1897-1940)
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Somewhere about the same year, 1837, Grandfather
Geraldine took ship for the same destination. I can give no
biography of him, except to say that he had all the scoundrelly
qualities of the best type of Irishman. He set out with the notion
that Australia would provide none of the luxuries of life at all,
and equipped himself accordingly with a wife, a wooden house
numbered in parts, a great many hogsheads of claret, and several
tons of Irish earth, which served during the voyage as ballast, and
afterwards as a foundation for the wooden house and a protection
against snakes.
He set up the wooden house facing Sydney Harbour on the pleasant
heights which overlook Rushcutter's Bay. Perhaps in that year
people still were cutting rushes there, or purses for a change when
any plutocrat was mad enough to take a stroll by its shores. It was
rustic, with the arid yet exotic charm of Australian scenes before
they become professional beauty-spots. The wooden house, too, was
rustic, and must have looked paltry among the stone palaces which
other pioneers had built with the help of convict labour, and which
were staffed with a nice assortment of forgers, poachers, and even
duellists who had been assigned as servants. From
Boomerang. |
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Edward S SORENSON
(1869-1939)
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Many foolish little birds try to fly before they
are strong enough, and so flutter to the ground, where they become
easy prey to enemies. Karaway, the White Cockatoo, wasn't going to
make similar mistakes. Barring accidents, he had a long life before
him. Was not his great-great-grandmother over a hundred years old?
There was, indeed, no need to hurry at the beginning. He was so
well feathered, when his mother coaxed him out of the hollow spout
at the top of a big red gum tree, that from the ground he and his
parent looked as much alike as two peas. From an ugly,
clumsy-looking, almost naked, dark-skinned infant, who nodded and
rocked his big head and squawked all day, he had become a sprightly
and elegant bird. [From Karaway the Cockatoo] |
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Daniel SOUTHWELL (1764-1797)
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[Southwell embarked as a midshipman in the Sirius in 1787
and was made a mate on the voyage to NSW.]
The moskitos are very troublesome, and insects of almost every
kind are here in g't number. The large ant, both black and brown,
when they attack us give g't pain, tho' of no long duration, and is
not attend'd with so tedious an itching as the bite of the small
one occasion, who are almost as much to be fear'd as the
muskitos.
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Catherine Helen SPENCE (1825-1910)
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Mr. Hogarth, of Cross Hall, had been taken suddenly
ill a few days previously, and had never recovered consciousness so
far as to be able to speak, though he had apparently known those
who were about him, and especially the two orphan nieces whom he
had brought up as his daughters. He had no other near relations
whom any one knew of, and had never been known to regret that the
name of Hogarth, of Cross Hall, was likely to become extinct. He
had the reputation of being the most eccentric man in the country,
and was thought to be the most inconsistent. From 'Mr Hogarth's
Will' |
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Christopher SPOTSWOOD
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I certainly did love these people, and knew I
should feel it much whenever I should part from them. No doubt I
have omitted many things relating to them which I ought to have
described and may think of at some future time, but I do not think
I have flattered them. Some day perhaps an expedition may be fitted
out to try and find them; that is, if my story is believed, which I
think rather doubtful, seeing that there is only my unsupported
word; and it was unfortunate that I had nothing to show from that
country to confirm my statements. |
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James STEELE
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The history of the Hawkesbury District between the
years 1788 and 1794 consists of the discovery, exploration and
naming of the river and its tributaries, among them the McDonald
and the Colo Rivers, by Governor A. Phillip and Captains Collins,
Johnston, Watkin, and Tench. These and others made several
successive visits to the Hawkesbury River, reaching as far as
Richmond Hill. In the year 1794 Lieut.-Governor Major Grose placed
the first twenty-two settlers along the banks of the Hawkesbury
River and South Creek, railed then Ruse's Creek, as James Ruse, the
man who first grew wheat at Parramatta, had a grant of land at the
junction of that stream with the Hawkesbury. The following year
many more families were settled, and as the natives were
troublesome, some troops from the N.S.W. Corps were sent up, and
the settlement of Windsor, then called Green Hills, was fairly
launched. |
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| Alfred
George (A G) STEPHENS (1865-1933) [As Editor]
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IN collating these stories and literary sketches
from the files of The Bulletin, the aim has been to make an
interesting book. It has not been attempted to choose the best
examples of literary style. Judged by a high canon, our most
talented story-writers are still only clever students of the art of
writing. A mere two or three have been able to earn a living by the
profession of literature, and even these have been obliged to make
the perilous compromise with journalism. So the stories and
sketches which follow are usually the literary dreams of men of
action, or the literary realisation of things seen by wanderers.
Usually they are objective, episodic, detached--branches torn from
the Tree of Life, trimmed and dressed with whatever skill the
writers possess (which often is not inconsiderable). —A G
Stephens (Editor) |
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Bertram STEVENS (1872-1922)
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The moonlight flutters from the sky, To meet her at
the door,
A little ghost, whose steps have passed, Across the creaking
floor.
And rustling vines that lightly tap, Against the window-pane,
Throw shadows on the white-washed walls, To blot them out
again.
From 'A Little Ghost' by Mary Gilmore. |
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Henry STEVENS (1855-1930)
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The recovery of the long-lost manuscript
Relación of Captain Don Diego de Prado y Tovar, who
accompanied Pedro Fernandez de Quiros on his famous voyage of
exploration in the South Seas in 1605-6, is undoubtedly the most
important "find" of virgin historical material made in
modern times. It furnishes us for the first time with a detailed
account of the discovery of Torres Strait and Northmost Australia,
made during the continuation of the voyage to Manila by Prado and
Torres after the parting of the ships at the Island of Espiritu
Santo, whence Quiros returned to America. |
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John Lort STOKES (1811-1885)
- Discoveries in Australia, with an Account of the Coasts and
Rivers Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in
the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen
Stanley's Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea.). This
ebook is available from the Australian Explorers Journals
page.
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Of the Australian shores, the North-western was the
least known, and became, towards the close of the year 1836, a
subject of much geographical speculation. Former navigators were
almost unanimous in believing that the deep bays known to indent a
large portion of this coast, received the waters of extensive
rivers, the discovery of which would not only open a route to the
interior, but afford facilities for colonizing a part of Australia,
so near our East Indian territories, as to render its occupation an
object of evident importance.
His Majesty's Government therefore determined to send out an
expedition to explore and survey such portions of the Australian
coasts as were wholly or in part unknown to Captains Flinders and
King. |
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Louis STONE (1871-1935)
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On Saturday night they went to Bob Fenner's
dance-room, or strolled down to Paddy's Market. When Jonah was
flush, he took her to the "Tiv.", where they sat in the gallery,
packed like sardines. If it were hot, Jonah sat in his
shirtsleeves, and went out for a drink at the intermission. When
they reached home, they stood in the lane bordering the cottage
where Ada lived, and talked for an hour in the dim light of the
lamp opposite, before she went in.--Jonah |
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John McDouall STUART
(1815-1866)
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Friday, 4th May, Gum and Spinifex Plains. At times
this country is visited by blacks, but it must be seldom, as since
we left the Fisher we have only seen the track of one, who seems to
have come from the east, and to have returned in that direction.
The spinifex in many places has been burnt, and the track of the
native was peculiar--not broad and flat, as they generally are, but
long and narrow, with a deep hollow in the foot, and the large toe
projecting a good deal; the other in some respects more like the
print of a white man than of a native. Had I crossed it the day
before, I would have followed it. My horses are now suffering too
much from the want of water to allow me to do so. If I did, and
were not to find water to-night, I should lose the whole of the
horses and our own lives into the bargain.... |
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Charles STURT (1795-1869)
- Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia.
This ebook is available from the Australian Explorers Journals
page.
- Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia. This
ebook is available from the Australian Explorers Journals
page.
- An Account of the Sea Coast and Interior of South
Australia with Observations on Various Subjects Connected with
its Interests--included in Expedition into Central
Australia, above.
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I still retained a strong impression on my mind
that some change was at hand, and on this occasion, I was not
disappointed; but the view was one for which I was not altogether
prepared. We had, at length, arrived at the termination of the
Murray. Immediately below me was a beautiful lake, which appeared
to be a fitting reservoir for the noble stream that had led us to
it; and which was now ruffled by the breeze that swept over it.
From 'Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia.'
Volume. II. |
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Alexander SUTHERLAND (1852-1902) and
George SUTHERLAND
(1855-1905)
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Few of the early pioneers of Western and North-Western
Queensland are now in the land of the living, and to collate any
reminiscences of the distant past, of men and matters--the dangers
and hardships they underwent through, droughts and floods, savage
blacks, hunger and thirst, &c., &c.--may be of interest to
many readers of the present day and to certain extent illustrate
the hard conditions of life in the wild regions at that period.
From Pioneering Days: Thrilling Incidents.
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Gwendolen SWINBURNE
NOTE: Many of the works mentioned in this ebook can be accessed
from this page! |
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The number of events described in a Source Book
must necessarily be smaller than that in histories of another type;
but the aim is to place the student in contact with the evidence of
history in order that he may become his own historian by drawing
his own deductions from the contemporary records. The greatest
historian can find no materials ulterior to such as are here
presented, for there is nothing ulterior to them but the deeds
themselves. They are the records written by the men who gave their
life and health to lay the foundation of Australia's greatness--by
Phillip, weakening under the racking cares of the infant state; by
Sturt in the scorching desert, as the last duty of an exhausting
day. They are aglow with the heat of action; they are inspiring in
their quiet modesty and strength. |
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TASMA (1848-1897)
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Thomas and Anne Thompson were among those who
determined to leave England for New South Wales. They had been
married eight years; their family was increasing, and labor
becoming scarcer and scarcer. They heard of other families
emigrating and that they easily got high wages, and lived in
plenty: so they thought with their four children they would do so
also. They were both honest, hard working and strong people, and
Anne had been well brought up by a careful and pious mother, who
had lived many years as servant in the squire's family.--Tales
of the Bush. |
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Abel Janszoon
TASMAN
(c.1603-1659)
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This land being the first land we have met with in
the South Sea and not known to any European nation we have
conferred on it the name of Anthony Van Diemensland in honour of
the Honourable Governor-General, our illustrious master, who sent
us to make this discovery; the islands circumjacent, so far as
known to us, we have named after the Honourable Councillors of
India, as may be seen from the little chart which has been made of
them. |
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Watkin TENCH (1759-1833)
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The dread of want in a country destitute of natural
resource is ever peculiarly terrible. We had long turned our eyes
with impatience towards the sea, cheered by the hope of seeing
supplies from England approach. But none arriving, on the 2nd of
October the 'Sirius' sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, with
directions to purchase provisions there, for the use of our
garrison. From 'A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port
Jackson.' |
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| Northcote W THOMAS (1868-1936)
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It is becoming an axiom in anthropology that what
is needed is not discursive treatment of large subjects but the
minute discussion of special themes, not a ranging at large over
the peoples of the earth past and present, but a detailed
examination of limited areas. This work I am undertaking for
Australia, and in the present volume I deal briefly with some of
the aspects of Australian kinship organisations, in the hope that a
survey of our present knowledge may stimulate further research on
the spot and help to throw more light on many difficult problems of
primitive sociology. |
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William H THOMES (1824-1895)
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The mines are overrun with ruffians, who have no
fear of law, and can only be kept in awe by courage superior to
their own. Of this we were quickly made acquainted, as we were
considered, by the old residents, green, having but recently
arrived, and not yet learned the mysteries of Ballarat. |
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W H TIETKENS
(1844-1933)
[commonly spelled TIETKINS in the works
of other explorers.]
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Tuesday, April 16th.--Camp No. 12. Bar. 27.580in.,
ther. 56° at dawn.--Very heavy dew during the night, but a most
lovely morning. Our arrangements all completed, we packed up and
started. Mr. MacDonald kindly gave me all the fat of a bullock that
he killed last night. Many and various have been the attentions
that we have received from this kind-hearted gentleman during our
stay near his homestead, among others was a liberal supply of fresh
milk sent down to our camp every morning, besides which, upon
hearing that my watch was broken, he very generously lent me his
for the journey. It will be understood that a timekeeper is a most
important item in the outfit of such a party; observation for
position would be almost impossible without one. |
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H J (Henry James)
TOMPKINS (1860-1942)
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If, my jaded and fagged friend of the city--if you
would venture upon a new experience, you will want to know where
you can go. Possibly you know only of the ordinary tourist resorts.
Well, Mr. Tompkins here sets before you some two or more scores of
interesting trips well within the reach of everybody. Here are
short and easily negotiable trips, occupying but a few hours, which
the author has verified from actual experience. The practice is
with him as well as myself, to construe the verb "to go"
into "to go afoot. Given good health, a holiday, some few
modest coins of the realm, and a live companion, you will here find
entrance into Arcady, or the Cambewarra, which, I take it is
geographically the same; your midday meal is enjoyed in the open,
and a clean bed and plain fare at dusk in some quiet unpretentious
village inn; at break of day you start, and away you go with your
swag and your staff, "While the winds up aloft whistle to a
tune."
--From the Introduction by W Mogford Hamlet. |
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| Anthony TROLLOPE (1815-1882)
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"He knows more about sheep than any man this side
of the Mary," said her husband. From all this I trust the reader
will understand that the Christmas to which he is introduced is not
the Christmas with which he is intimate on this side of the
equator--a Christmas of blazing fires in-doors, and of sleet arid
snow and frost outside--but the Christmas of Australia, in which
happy land the Christmas fires are apt to be lighted--or to light
themselves--when they are by no means needed. |
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| James TUCKER (1808-1888)
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Again, it was the policy of the superintendent to
put two gangs of similar strength at the same kind of work within
view of each other, when the overseers would vie one with the other
to try which could get most done; and dire was then the cursing,
swearing, raging and tearing of the rivals, who would goad on their
men every instant with threats of the torturing lash, uttered with
all the real arrogance of low-bred jacks-in-office, who, it need
hardly be said, were capable of any atrocity themselves, and would
commit any crime rather than descend from their ill-sustained
eminences to work among their fellows. This is premised, lest the
reader should scarcely believe what follows; yet there are many
scores now alive in New South Wales who can vouch for the truth of
the leading features. |
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| Mark TWAIN (1835-1910)
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We changed [rail] cars. This was at Albury. And it
was there, I think, that the growing day and the early sun exposed
the distant range called the Blue Mountains. Accurately named. "My
word!" as the Australians say, but it was a stunning color, that
blue. Deep, strong, rich, exquisite; towering and majestic masses
of blue--a softly luminous blue, a smouldering blue, as if vaguely
lit by fires within. It extinguished the blue of the sky--made it
pallid and unwholesome, whitey and washed-out. A wonderful
color--just divine. |
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Richard TWOPENY (1857-1915)
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Victoria has invented a set of rules for herself--a
kind of compound between the Rugby Union and Association. South
Australia plays the Victorian game. I suppose it is a heresy for an
old Marlburian to own it, but after having played all three games,
Rugby, Association and Victorian--the first several hundred times,
the second a few dozen times, and the third a couple of score of
times--I feel bound to say that the Victorian game is by far the
most scientific, the most amusing both to players and onlookers,
and altogether the best; and I believe I may say that on this point
my opinion is worth having. Of course, men who are accustomed to
the English games, and have not played the Victorian, will hold it
ridiculous that the solution of the best game of football problem
should be found, as I believe it has been found, in Melbourne. But
I would ask them to remember that the Victorian game was founded by
rival public school men, who, finding that neither party was strong
enough to form a club of its own, devised it--of course not in its
present elaborate state--as a compromise between the two. |
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| George
VANCOUVER (1757-1798)
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Although the considerations adverted to in the
foregoing chapter, rendered it impracticable to explore the
s.w. coast of New Holland to the
extent my wishes first led me to imagine, and prevented our
ascertaining its boundary and connection with, or separation from,
Van Dieman's Land; yet the information we have acquired, will open
a field to those whose duty it may hereafter be to perform that
task; by shewing, that its s.w.
part may be approached with the greatest safety, as its shores are
bold with regular soundings to the distance of 8 or 9 leagues; and
by the discovery of the very excellent harbour in King George the
Third's Sound. Considering therefore its situation and conveniences
as likely to become of material importance to those whose pursuits
may induce them to navigate this and the pacific ocean, it may not
be uninteresting to detail, in a more particular manner, the
circumstances that occurred during our visit to a country hitherto
so little known to Europeans. |
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James Hardy VAUX (fl. 1812)
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This is a dictionary of Australian slang, and the earliest
dictionary of any kind produced in Australia.
With the utmost deference and respect, I beg leave to submit to
your perusal the following sheets. The idea of such a compilation
first originated in the suggestion of a friend; and however the
theme may be condemned as exceptionable by narrow minds, I feel
confident you possess too much liberality of sentiment to reject
its writer as utterly depraved, because he has acquired an
extensive knowledge on a subject so obviously disgraceful. True it
is, that in the course of a chequered and eventful life, I have
intermixed with the most dissolute and unprincipled characters, and
that a natural quickness of conception, and most retentive memory,
have rendered me familiar with their language and system of
operations.
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Mary Theresa VIDAL (1815-1873)
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Grace made an excellent managing wife. No cottage
was cleaner or more tasty, no meals so well cooked. No man turned
out so neat and well dressed as William. The rent was always paid,
and all things prospered. Grace worked hard; but as evening came,
she never failed to be at the garden paling to catch the first
look, and if it was fine, they had their evening stroll.
No woman, as she afterwards said, was ever half so happy; alas for
the blossom which had no root, and which the first wintry storm
crushed to the ground for ever! |
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Edward Gibbon
WAKEFIELD (1796-1862)
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All that you read in the works of Wentworth and
Cunningham, as to the healthfulness and beauty of the climate, is
strictly true. There are scarcely any diseases but what result
immediately from intemperance. Dropsy, palsy, and the whole train
of nervous complaints, are common enough; but then, drunkenness is
the vice par excellence of the lower orders; and the better class
of settlers have not learned those habits of temperance which are
suited to the climate of Naples. The two classes often remind me of
English Squires and their grooms, as I used to see them at
Florence, just after the peace; the masters drinking at dinner,
because they were abroad, and after dinner because they were
Englishmen; the servants drinking always, because wine and brandy
were cheap. Perhaps a generation must pass away before the people
here will accommodate their habits to the climate, which is that of
Italy, without either malaria or the sirocco. From A Letter from
Sydney. |
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| Frederick WALKER (c.1820-1866)
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Nov. 26.--I had to go up the river 8 miles before I
could get a crossing-place, and last night's rain had made the
ground so heavy that the horses were much distressed. I therefore
camped as soon as we had crossed. This morning Jemmy Cargara, in
collecting the horses, found Burke's trail returning across the
plain, and going S.S.E. |
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James Backhouse WALKER
(1841-1899)
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The discovery of Tasmania and New Zealand was no
chance adventure. It was the result of a steady policy. It was the
outcome of the adventurous energy which in the 16th and 17th
centuries created the Dutch Republic; gave to Holland her Colonial
Empire; and--not content with her possession of the Eastern
Archipelago--sent out her sailors to search for a New world in the
unknown regions of the mysterious South. Tasman and Visscher are
but types of the men who won for their country her once proud
position of mistress of the seas. From the Preafe to Abel
Janszoon Tasman: His Life and Voyages. |
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Dorothy WALL (1894-1942)
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The bush was alive with excitement. Mrs Koala had a
brand new baby, and the news spread like wildfire. The kookaburras
in the highest gum-trees heard of it, and laughed and chuckled at
the idea. In and out of their burrows the rabbits came scuttling,
their big brown eyes opening wide with wonder as they heard the
news. Over the grass the message went where Mrs Kangaroo was
quietly hopping towards her home. She fairly leapt in the air with
joy. "I must tell Mr Kangaroo!" she cried and bounded away in great
hops and leaps. |
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James Morgan WALSH
(1897-1952)
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We never felt the lift, the Cosmos rose so
lightly from the slips. Insulated from all sound as we were in the
cabin, we heard none of the blare of departure either. Only, the
warning glow of the red bulb above the dial chart on the opposite
wall told us that New York, the whole American continent indeed,
was sliding away beneath us. |
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Peter WARBURTON
(1813-1889)
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I was much vexed at my carelessness in not knowing
there was to be a total eclipse of the moon. I might have been
prepared to some extent by rating my Adelaide timekeeper, and
getting my true time at camp, and though I had no telescope that
would note the different contacts and phases accurately, I might
have approximately corrected my longitude. Taken by surprise, when
the eclipse commenced, I could get nothing to be safely relied
upon, though I tried. It was a splendid sight, and our view was
perfect. The moon was at its full, and the eclipse commenced
shortly after sundown, lasting for about two hours, during half of
which time it was total. After an hour the shadow began to move
off. |
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| Price WARUNG (1855-1911)
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Big, burly Tom M'Grundy, with the thirst of a
sponge, features of a red, red nose, the heart of an angel, and the
financial genius of a Wilkins Micawber--his I. O. U.s and P. N.s
would have covered the Old Man Plain with a pavement of tesselated
indebtedness--drove up to the boats as they were raising steam for
the trip to Echuca. |
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Thomas WATLING (b. 1762)
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The letters were written to his aunt in Dumfries "giving a
particular account of the settlement of New South Wales, with the
customs and manners of the inhabitants."
The air, the sky, the land, are objects entirely different from
all that a Briton has been accustomed to see before. The sky clear
and warm; in the summer very seldom overcast, or any haze
discernable in the azure; the rains, when we have them, falling in
torrents, & the clouds immediately dispersing. Thunder, as
said, in loud contending peals, happening often daily, & always
within every two or three days, at this season of the year.
Eruscations and flashes of lightning, constantly succeeding each
other in quick and rapid succession. The land, an immense forest,
extended over a plain country, the maritime parts of which, are
interspersed with rocks, yet covered with venerable majestic trees,
hoary with age, or torn with tempests.--In a word, the easy,
liberal mind, will be here filled with astonishment, and find much
entertainment from the various novel objects that every where
present themselves.
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Frederick WATSON (1878-1945)
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BY the appointment of Lachlan Macquarie
as governor of New South Wales, the government showed that English
opinion had changed regarding the qualifications required by the
man who was to administer and control the affairs of the distant
colony. Macquarie's predecessors had been naval officers. When
captain William Bligh had been appointed at a salary of
£2,000 per annum, it had been recognised that the growth and
importance of the settlements made it necessary that an officer of
not less than flag rank should hold the position. The disastrous
result of placing a stern, outspoken naval post-captain in the
command of a colony where the military party was predominant had
been shown in the usurpation of Bligh's government. The appointment
of a military governor of equal rank was determined, and the final
selection was made of Macquarie. Instead of being accustomed to the
bluff manners of the quarter-deck, Macquarie was courteous and
politic. He had served on the staffs of the earls of Harrington and
Cavan, Sir Robert Abercromby, Sir David Baird, and General James
Stuart, and by experience had acquired the attributes necessary for
an executive officer to avoid friction and useless
controversies. |
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| Henry Brereton Marriott WATSON (1863-1921)
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As I was rejoining her a strange low whirring was
audible, and looking up I saw in a corner of the high-arched roof a
horrible face watching me out of black narrow eyes. I confess that
I was very much startled at the apparition, but the next moment
realized what it was. The creature hung with its ugly fleshy wings
extended over a grotesque stone head that leered down upon me, its
evil-looking snout projecting into the room; it lay perfectly
still, returning me glance for glance, until moved by the repulsion
of its presence I clapped my hands, and cried loudly; then, slowly
flitting in a circle round the roof, it vanished with a flapping of
wings into some darker corner of the rafters. Mrs Batty was
astounded, and expressed surprise that it had managed to conceal
itself for so long.--From The Stone Chamber |
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Edwin James WELCH
(1838-1916)
[a.k.a Alwyn Alverstoke, E.J.W., and Edwin Halstead]
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Both horse and rider were manifestly weary. The scrubby ridges
and broken gullies, characteristic of the Upper Dawson country of
Queensland, seemed interminable. Over the ridge, longer and more
forbidding than previous ones, the rays of a fast-disappearing sun
shed a lustre that made it almost beautiful. The young man on the
flea-bitten grey drew rein mechanically, and muttered an
imprecation. He was dressed bush fashion--slouch hat, Crimean
shirt, serviceable riding pants, and a belt out of which protruded
the handle of a murderous-looking revolver. His carriage and
demeanor denoted connection at some time or other with one of Her
Majesty's services. He had the confidence which comes of training
and discipline, and the reckless abandon which only youth and
excellent health can give. Turning in his saddle, he glanced around
him. "By Jove," he muttered, "this has been a most
trying day. It looks like camping out again, and sleeping with one
eye open in case of blacks."
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Thomas E. WELLS (1782-1833)
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Michael Howe...was born at Pontefract in Yorkshire in the year
1787, and was bound apprentice to a merchant vessel at Hull; but he
served only two years when he ran away and entered on board a
man-of-war. In the year 1811 he was apprehended for robbing a
miller on the highway, and tried at the York assizes following; but
from an informality in the indictment the capital part of the
charge was abandoned, and he received sentence of seven years
transportation. He arrived at this settlement in the ship
Indefatigable, Captain Cross, in the month of October
1812.
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Wililam
Charles WENTWORTH
(1792-1872)
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The animals are, the kangaroo, native dog, (which
is a smaller species of the wolf,) the wombat, bandicoot, kangaroo
rat, opossum, flying squirrel, flying fox, etc. etc. There are none
of those animals or birds which go by the name of "game" in this
country, except the heron. The hare, pheasant and partridge are
quite unknown; but there are wild ducks, widgeon, teal, quail,
pigeons, plovers, snipes, etc. etc., with emus, black swans,
cockatoos, parrots, parroquets, and an infinite variety of smaller
birds, which are not found in any other country. In fact, both its
animal and vegetable kingdoms are in a great measure peculiar to
itself. |
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John WEST (1809-1873)
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At the era of discovery by Tasman, Van Diemen's
Land was inhabited. He heard, or thought he heard, the voices of
people and the sound of a trumpet: he noticed the recently cut
notches, five feet asunder, on the bark of the trees, and he saw
the smoke of fires. He inferred that they possessed some unusual
method of climbing, or that their stature was gigantic. In the
sound, the colonist recognises the vocal cooey of the
aborigines, and learns from the steps "to the birds'
nests," that they then hunted the opossum, and employed that
method of ascent, which, for agility and daring has never been
surpassed. Thus, during more than 150 years, this country was
forgotten; and such were the limits of European knowledge, when the
expedition of Cook was dispatched by Great Britain to explore this
hemisphere. No navigator brought larger views, and a temper more
benevolent, to the task of discovery. To some nations he opened the
path of civilisation and religion: to this race he was the
harbinger of death. Volume 2 |
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William
WESTGARTH
(1815-1889)
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Entering Port Phillip on the morning of the 13th
December, 1840, we were wafted quickly up to the anchorage of
Hobson's Bay on the wings of a strong southerly breeze, whose cool,
and even cold, temperature was to most of us an unexpected
enjoyment in the middle of an Australian summer. A small boat came
to us at the anchorage containing Mr. and Mrs. D.C. McArthur and
others who had friends or relations on board, and who told us that
for some days there had been excessive heat and a hot wind, which
had now reacted in this southerly blast, to go on probably into
heavy rain, the country being excessively dry. |
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Charles WHITE
(1845-1922)
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The early history of bushranging in
Australia will never be written, for the facts have never been
recorded. Limited though the colony was in extent, its
literature--even its journalism--was still more limited. Moreover,
the first men who "took the bush" were neither important
nor interesting enough to obtain more than a passing mention in
those Governors' despatches which are our chief authorities for
early colonial history. Owing to the stringent military rule during
the first years of convict settlement, the unknown character of the
country, and the absence of prey in the shape of men with money or
other possessions (the aborigines being the only occupants of the
soil outside the properly formed settlements), those who were
called bushrangers then were simply men who had broken away from
their gangs in the hope of escaping from the torture of labour
under Government. The name has been made to carry a very different
meaning since then, being applied to men who, some from choice and
some from necessity, ranged the bush as freebooters,
"sticking-up" settlers and travellers and demanding in
orthodox style "your money or your life."
From: History of Australian Bushranging. |
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John WHITE (1757/8-1832)
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26 January, 1788. At ten o'clock the Sirius,
with all the ships, weighed, and in the evening anchored in Port
Jackson, with a few trifling damages done to some of them, who had
run foul of each other in working out of Botany Bay. Port Jackson I
believe to be, without exception, the finest and most extensive
harbour in the universe, and at the same time the most secure,
being safe from all the winds that blow. It is divided into a great
number of coves, to which his excellency has given different names.
That on which the town is to be built, is called Sydney Cove. It is
one of the smallest in the harbour, but the most convenient, as
ships of the greatest burden can with ease go into it, and heave
out close to the shore. Trincomalé, acknowledged to be one
of the best harbours in the world, is by no means to be compared to
it. In a word, Port Jackson would afford sufficient and safe
anchorage for all the navies of Europe. The Supply had arrived the
day before, and the governor, with every person that could be
spared from the ship, were on shore, clearing the ground for the
encampment. In the evening, when all the ships had anchored, the
English colours were displayed; and at the foot of the flag-staff
his Majesty's health, and success to the settlement, was drank by
the governor, many of the principal officers, and private men who
were present upon the occasion. |
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William John WILLS
(1834-1861)
- Successful Exploration through the Interior of
Australia. From the Journals and Letters of William John Wills.
Edited by his father, William Wills. This ebook is available from
the Australian Explorers
Journals page.
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We proceeded down the creek for seven miles,
crossing a branch running to the southward, and followed a native
track leading to that part of the creek where Mr. Burke, Mr. Wills,
and King encamped after their unsuccessful attempt to reach Mount
Hopeless and the northern settlements of South Australia, and where
poor Wills died. We found the two gunyahs situated on a sand-bank
between two waterholes and about a mile from the flat where they
procured nardoo seed, on which they managed to exist so long. Poor
Wills's remains we found lying in the wurley in which he died, and
where King, after his return from seeking for the natives, had
buried him with sand and rushes. From Mr Howitt's
diary. |
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Thomas Briadwood WILSON
(1792-1843)
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The complete title of this work provides an apt description of
its contents:
"Narrative of a Voyage Round the world comprehending an
account of the wreck of the ship "Governor Ready," in
Torres Straits; a description of the British Settlements on the
coasts of New Holland, more particularly Raffles Bay, Melville
Island, Swan River, and King George's Sound; also, the manners and
customs of the Aboriginal Tribes; with an Appendix, containing
remarks on transportation, the treatment of convicts during the
voyage, and advice to persons intending to emigrate to the
Australian Colonies."
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William Bramwell
WITHERS (1823-1913)
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This little History, in eight chapters, only
touches a few of the more prominent incidents connected with
pastoral settlement and the gold discovery in the Ballarat
district. The compiler has seen the growth of the town from a mere
collection of canvas tents among the trees and on the grassy slopes
and flats of the wild bush to its present condition. Less than 20
years ago there was not a house where now stands this wealthy mine
and farm-girdled city, whose population is nearly equal to the
united populations of Oxford and Cambridge, and exceeding by
several thousands the united populations of the cities of
Winchester, Canterbury, Salisbury, and Lichfield at the time of the
gold discovery. This is one of the truths which are magnificently
stranger than fiction. |
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John G WITHNELL
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The object of this work is to preserve, before
civilization has made them obsolete, the traditions and customs of
the aboriginal natives of the North-West of Western
Australia--particularly those of the Pilbarra district--as
accurately as possible, based upon upwards of twenty years'
observation. |
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George WITTON (1874-1942)
Harry "Breaker" Morant is covered at Perry Middlemiss'
Literature Site
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I have not attempted to defend the doings of the ill-starred
Bushveldt Carbineers, or the policy of those who employed them.
The methods of dealing with prisoners, which have been solely
attributed to that corps, were in active operation before the
so-called "Australian" officers went to the Spelonken district--a
fact which the English press, and a large section of the Australian
press, systematically ignored.
When I arrived in Australia, I found that the grossest
misrepresentations had been made by those primarily responsible for
the manner of the warfare which "staggered humanity," and that they
had succeeded in linking the name of Australia with the most tragic
and odious incidents connected with a mercenary and inglorious
war.
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George Arnold WOOD
(1865-1928)
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The story may begin in a Greek Utopia, written by
an author named Theopompus about 350 B.C.
"At length in process of talk Selenus told Midas of certain
islands named Europia, Asia, and Libia, which the Ocean Sea
circumscribeth and compasseth round about; and that without this
world there is a continent or parcel of dry land which in greatness
is infinite and immeasurable"; and he told of its "green
meadows and pasture plots," its "big and mighty
beasts," its gigantic men, who, "in the same climate
exceed the stature of us twice," its "many and divers
cities, its laws and ordinances clean contrary to ours."
[From: The Discovery of Australia]
[From these initial words Wood takes us on a voyage of discovery
through the centuries. This culminates in Cook's landing on the
east coast of Australia and Flinders' mapping of the
continent.]
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George B WORGAN (1757-1838)
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I think I hear You saying, "Where the D--ce is
Sydney Cove Port Jackson"? and see You whirling the Letter about to
find out the the Name of the Scribe: Perhaps You have taken up
Salmons Gazetteer, if so, pray spare your Labour, and attend to Me
for half an Hour--We sailed from the Cape of Good Hope on the 12th
of November 1787-- As that was the last civilized Country We should
touch at, in our Passage to Botany Bay We provided ourselves with
every Article, necessary for the forming a civilized Colony, Live
Stock, consisting of Bulls, Cows, Horses Mares, Colts, Sheep, Hogs,
Goats Fowls and other living Creatures by Pairs. We likewise,
procured a vast Number of Plants, Seeds & other Garden
articles, such, as Orange, Lime, Lemon, Quince Apple, Pear Trees,
in a Word, every Vegetable Production that the Cape afforded. Thus
Equipped, each Ship like another Noah's Ark, away we steered for
Botany Bay, and after a tolerably pleasant Voyage of 10 Weeks &
2 Days Governour Phillip, had the Satisfaction to see the whole of
his little Fleet safe at Anchor in the said Bay. |
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