Grosvenor Bunster Grosvenor Bunster i(A30952 works by) (a.k.a. E. Bunster; Jack Bunster)
Born: Established: 29 May 1837 Hobart, Southeast Tasmania, Tasmania, ; Died: Ceased: 1904 Prahran, South Yarra - Glen Iris area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,
Gender: Male
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 A Precious Villain Grosvenor Bunster , 1901 single work novella crime

Follows the character of Knatchbull, the son of an ancient family, from his first encounter with a phrenologist at his school to his final end on the gallows for a brutal murder.

1 Herr Bochienstaafer and the Devil Grosvenor Bunster , 1898 single work short story romance
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , March vol. 33 no. 394 1898; (p. 216-217)
A German-born vigneron leaves the selection of a suitor to his beautiful daughter and is very pleased when she chooses his favourite, the son of a neighbouring Kentish farmer. The hearty wholesome romance is lightened by a touch of devilry from her younger brothers who steal their father's food and wine in disguise. Father's German accent phonetically conveyed. The sutir's father momentarily rues that his son did not choose 'an English lass'. (PB)
1 The Fate of a Flirt Grosvenor Bunster , 1897 single work short story romance
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , September vol. 32 no. 388 1897; (p. 640-641)
A Bathurst flirt falls for a handsome unscrupulous Frenchman who becomes engaged to her then leaves with a substantial cheque in his pocket to pay for a return visit to France. Ten years later she was still waiting - a generous old maid. A fate befitting a flirt in Bunster's and society's opinion. (PB)
1 Ballarat Joe's Revenge Grosvenor Bunster , 1897 single work short story romance
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , August vol. 32 no. 387 1897; (p. 559-562)
A successful honest generous digger has his pretty fiancee stolen by his digging partner who he took to work for him through kindness. They never return from a trip to Melbourne for her trousseau - but Joe follows her and supports her when her husband deserts her. (PB)
1 Henstone's Revenge Grosvenor Bunster , 1896 single work novel Story begins 20th December 1808 and the mutiny against Governor Bligh over his decisions to arrest Macarthur and stop the rum trade. Bligh's daughter Margaret loves the young soldier Fenton who is sent by Governor Paterson to Parramatta. There is mounting concern over a pretty Irish convict Alice North at the Female Factory, who is being sought as a wife by surly Henstone and the handsome honest free settler Vann - both Hawkesbury farmers. Roth, the commandant of the female factory, is murdered by his mistress Martha Lee. Paterson gives Vann permission to marry Alice but she's escaped to Margaret Catchpole's house rather than marry Roth. Vann, accidentally wounded, meets her there. Bligh meanwhile has sailed to Hobart where he is refused help by Fouveaux and discovers the romance between his daughter and Fenton. Corrupt Judge Atkins plays a strong part. The trial of Martha Lee and her son confirms Atkins' hatred of Vann and he determines to help Henstone. The saga continues with historical and fictitious figures, with the arrival of Macquarie. (PB)
1 An Old Time Race Story Grosvenor Bunster , 1896 single work short story adventure romance Tale about convict times, purportedly based on fact. The annual horse race in Sydney in 1806 is this time celebrating the news of Trafalgar and the arrival of two ships with provisions - one US, one British. A gawky horse belonging to an Irish farmer wins. The attendees include Governor King, Baron Ward, Mr Holt, Margaret Catchpole, George Barrington, and Kate Vaughan - a governess wrongfully convicted for stealing jewllery planted in her box by a jealous mistress. Tale is mainly of the plan to help her escape from Botany Bay on the Yankee ship: helped by the US Captain, the settlement's Dr and Mrs Laudus, and two gentlefolk from India. The gawky horse wins another race - this time to deliver a warning letter to the Yankee ship to depart before His Majesty's boat can reach and search her. (PB)
1 The Man in Possession Grosvenor Bunster , 1896 single work short story romance
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , December vol. 32 no. 379 1896; (p. 68-72)
Dick Allerton returns penniless to Melbourne from seeking work up-country, hoping to receive news from his rich English uncle. He runs into the former coachman of the Raby's,a rich merchant of Brighton and his daughter Lucy whom Tom had loved but been refused because of his poverty. Mr Raby has been ruined through chicanery and his coachman Tom Noble has brought the bill of sale over Raby's furniture to prevent its loss. Allerton agrees to enter the house as a bailiff over Christmas - to give Hood grace time - but is recognised first by Tom's wife Martha, the cook, then by Mr Raby and Lucy when he is discovered reading letters addressed to himself and kept there. Lucy loves him, his letter contains news of a comfortable inheritance, etc. Twins finish the picture years later. (PB)
1 The Skipper's Daughter Grosvenor Bunster , 1896 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , April vol. 31 no. 371 1896; (p. 384-386)
A retired whaling captain, eccentric in character, dress and house in Queen Street, relents and allows his daughter to come and live with him from Tasmania. He had not seen her since his wife ran off with another man years before. She warms his heart and reforms his ways, refusing all suitors for several years. Eventually, acting as a gold buyer, the captain hires a handsome clerk. Regular meetings and a dangerous encounter with thieves - in which the clerk and daughter save the captain - open the way to romance and a happy ending. Father's fears of loss of his daughter through marriage are groundless. Light, happy tale. (PB)
1 The Fortune-Teller Grosvenor Bunster , 1895 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , January vol. 30 no. 356 1895; (p. 243-244) Great Southern Advocate , 8 February 1906; (p. 3)
Romance among the ladies of Toorak. An old French fortune-teller in Melbourne predicts a widow's romance with a certain gentleman - but the proddings of a cruel friend and a bribe on the gentleman's part persuade his true love to visit the seer and to learn of his affection. A happy marriage follows and his trickery is finally revealed. (PB)
1 The Mother-in-Law Grosvenor Bunster , 1895 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , March vol. 30 no. 358 1895; (p. 374-376)
A Melbourne couple, happily married for six years, have their contentment disturbed by the wife's mother's proposal to come and stay several months while her husband speculates on silver mining in Adelaide. The couple have their first quarrel and the husband leaves for Europe, writing daily. The wife soon learns to dislike her mother and is relieved when her mother has to join her husband in Adelaide. Then her own husband appears - he has been working in Melbourne all the time saving his holidays to take his family to New Zealand ... Happiness is restored through the mother's absence. (PB)
1 Willoughby Falls Grosvenor Bunster , 1895 single work short story romance
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , April vol. 30 no. 359 1895; (p. 432-433)
A young lady meets an artist at the Falls, when he kills the black snake her dog is attacking. He paints her portrait - which was bought by her father - courts and charms her, and they become engaged.
1 Mr Jinks and Miss Janes Grosvenor Bunster , 1895 single work short story fantasy
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , May vol. 30 no. 360 1895; (p. 498-501)
A government schoolteacher in a small town, Wild Duck Flat, in the Goulburn Valley of Victoria is dismissed for laxness with discipline and addiction to alcohol. The local notables arrange his dismissal through the department but when a registered letter and his replacement teacher, a pretty young woman, arrive his reactions are unexpected. He confesses to being an English gentleman who left England for Australia ten years before rather than marry a girl chosen for him in childhood. And his female replacement is the girl he left behind, who had done the same thing. Satirical sketch of small town life, parochialisation, the temperance movement and school children. (PB)
1 The Man from Coolgardie Grosvenor Bunster , 1895 single work short story romance
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , August vol. 30 no. 363 1895; (p. 663-666)
A Melbourne tea broker's family are visited by a wealthy crude miner of warm heart from Coolgardie. The elder, Sophia, is prepared to marry him for his money but his heart turns to her younger sister Clara who scorns him. His good qualities, courage, generosity, and kindness warm her heart but she refuses to marry him. He changes his mind when he discovers this, leaving a handsome bank draft for her father and her brother who works on the stock exchange. He also looks up Clara's suitor there, a scholarly type unfitted for marriage, and gives him enough money to marry her. A couple of years later he marries Sophia. Amusing satirical comments on society, hypocrisy, the difficulty of marrying daughters without dowries, the crudity of new-rich miners and the stock exchange. (PB)
1 A Social Mistake Grosvenor Bunster , 1895 single work short story satire
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , November vol. 31 no. 366 1895; (p. 98-100)
Sydney romance and social satire. The gracious and beautiful daughter of a wealthy former teamster and bush hotel servant tours Europe, turns down coronets, and falls in love with a poor but handsome and noble sailor from Sydney. They marry much to the disgust of her puffed-up father, Sydney society, and a vulgar old millionaire who wanted her himself. Light. (PB)
1 A Lucky Burglary Grosvenor Bunster , 1895-1894 single work short story adventure
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , September vol. 31 no. 364 1895; (p. 735-736)
Adventure and romance in Waverley, Sydney. A penniless gentleman is shot while preventing a burglary in a merchant's suburban villa. He is nursed back to health by the family, falls in love with the daughter, is given a position in the father's compnay - and romance blossoms. Lightly humorous. Some comments on the discomforts of penury. (PB)
1 That Second-Hand Coat : A Cup Story Grosvenor Bunster , 1894 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , November vol. 30 no. 354 1894; (p. 128-130)
A pair of very down on their luck gentlemen in Melbourne recruit their fortunes with £300 found in the pocket of a second-hand coat - and the lucky bets at the Derby and Cup races. They then return the money to the rightful owner - a colonel from whom it had been stolen. Romantic sub-plot prospers too. Comments on changes in social position and acceptance encouraged by dress. Light irony. (PB)
1 Mutiny Grosvenor Bunster , 1894 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , September vol. 30 no. 352 1894; (p. 50-57)
An old sailor in a lower George Street tavern recalls a mutiny of convicts bound for Norfolk Isalnd from Hobart Town in 1846. The face of evil, a tender chord in a hardened criminal, a Christian-hearted doctor, and the hanging of all 27 on arrival are the main elements. (PB)
1 A Fight For Life Grosvenor Bunster , 1894 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , October vol. 30 no. 353 1894; (p. 100-102)
Recalls a confrontation in the mid 1830s between escaped convicts and a settler's wife and daughter left alone on an island in D'Entrecasteaux Channel, Tasmania. The woman pick off the convicts slowly, promising to kill themselves if it looks like they will be captured. Their courage and the return of their menfolk save the day. (PB)
1 That Blackfellow Grosvenor Bunster , 1894 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , August vol. 29 no. 351 1894; (p. 689-690)
Australian station romance between a Sydney boarding school girl returned home and a friend of her brother's. Sparring turns to love when they are rescued from a bushfire by an Aboriginal station hand. Light; patronising description of Aborigine with some ironic commentary on white man's love. Also direct authorial irony, for example in comparison of bushfire and the fires of passion. (PB)
1 The Recidiviste Grosvenor Bunster , 1894 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , July vol. 29 no. 350 1894; (p. 624)
Account of a Frenchman's escape from prison in New Caledonia in a small boat in 1879; his days adrift fighting thirst and starvation; his rescue by a ship. He had been a political prisoner. Pithy. (PB)
X