19th-Century Australian Travel Writing
Edward Waltham's Life and Labour in Australia was written as a novel, detailing Waltham’s experiences en route to Australia and narratives of the Australian colonies. After briefly observing the transformation of Melbourne into a city of "majesty," Waltham described the enchanting harbour of Sydney. While in the gold-mining district, he provided an illustration of bush life, squatting, and sheep-farming, before commenting on frontier violence, suggesting that accounts regarding the aggressive behaviour of settlers towards Aboriginal peoples were exaggerated. Waltham detailed his travels by land and water to Brisbane, and provided an illustration of life on the sugar plantations, before the account of his return journey to England.
