Cirrus@Austlit

Australian Colonial Narrative Journalism:

Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell undertook three major expeditions in northern NSW, along the Murray, Darling, Leichhardt and Murrumbidgee Rivers. He wrote lyrically of these adventures in his two-volume work Three Expeditions in the Interior of Eastern Australia: With Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix and of the Present Colony of New South Wales, which was published in London by T & W Boone Publishers in 1838.

The book was reviewed in Australian newspapers, with the Hobart Town Courier (22 Feb 1839) describing Mitchell’s descriptive powers as “exceedingly good” and that he was “an agreeable, entertaining, and most instructive companion”. The Colonist (1 May 1839) reviewed his book in a special section titled ‘Literature and Science’ and praised him as “a scientific and amiable author”.

The volumes included beautiful lithographs of the country, its animals, birds and aboriginal people. Mitchell included a portrait of Nattai man, Moyengully, who he described as one of his earliest Aboriginal friends.

Speaking about himself in the third person, Mitchell wrote in the Preface to the First Edition: “With respect to the narrative of those expeditions, the sole merit which he claims is that of having faithfully described what he attentively observed; neither his pencil nor his pen has been allowed to pass the bounds of truth”.

Bibliography:

• Three Expeditions Into The Interior of Eastern Australia; with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix and of the present colony of New South Wales, volume 1;
• Three Expeditions Into The Interior of Eastern Australia; with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix and of the present colony of New South Wales, volume 2.