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y separately published work icon An Excursion to Port Arthur in 1842 single work   autobiography   travel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1842... 1842 An Excursion to Port Arthur in 1842
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

"First published in the Tasmania Journal in 1842, this is a narrative of a five-day visit to the convict settlement at Port Arthur. Besides the main establishment at Port Arthur, Burn visited the boy's penitentiary at Point Puer, the Isles des Morts, Flinders Bay, Saltwater Creek, Cascade and Impression Bay. Burn praises the organisation and treatment of the convicts under Commandant Captain Booth, describing their appearance, accommodation, and occupations. He sees and comments on a number of well-known convicts, including the writer, Henry Savery and Chartist John Frost" (Walsh and Hooton 32).

Source

Walsh, Kay and Joy Hooton. Australian Autobiographical Narratives : An Annotated Bibliography. Canberra : Australian Scholarly Editions Centre, University College, ADFA and National Library of Australia, 1993.

Affiliation Notes

  • 19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

    David Burn (1798-1875), settler and writer, arrived in Hobart in 1826 but was refused land grants after claiming assets that belonged to his mother, the first woman granted land in Tasmania. After living in New Norfolk, Burn returned to England and addressed the Colonial Society Club, London, in 1840, urging the need for a representative government in the colony, and he wrote a number of 'Sketches of Van Diemen's Land' for the Colonial Magazine (1840-41). He also published the pamphlet Vindication of Van Diemen's Land in a Cursory Glance at her Colonists as They Are, Not as They Have Been Represented (1840), before returning to Tasmania in 1841. Burn's pamphlet An Excursion to Port Arthur in 1842 was originally published anonymously in the Tasmanian Journal in 1842. In this sketch, Burn recorded his observations as a passenger on board a ship conveying convicts to various stations on the Tasman Peninsula, with particular attention paid to the natural beauty of the landscape and the harsh necessities of the convict system. Burn also accompanied Sir John and Lady Jane Franklin on their expedition to the west coast of Tasmania: an 1843 serialised magazine publication of this expedition was later edited and published by George Mackaness as Narrative of the overland journey of Sir John and Lady Franklin and party from Hobart Town to Macquarie Harbour, 1842 (1955). Burn had literary interests, including writing Plays and Fugitive Pieces in Verse (1842) and a three-act play The Bushrangers (1829).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, Agriculture, Statistics, etc vol. 1 no. 4 1842 Z1825178 1842 periodical issue 1842 pg. 265-295
    Note: link and pagination is to the 3 volume edition.
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country vol. 26 no. 153 September 1842 Z1825192 1842 periodical issue 1842
    • Hobart, Southeast Tasmania, Tasmania,: Office of "The Mercury" , 1892 .
      image of person or book cover 6104585714787795952.png
      Alternative title: An Excursion to Port Arthur in 1842
      Link: 20330905Full text document Sighted: 06/10/2020
      Note/s:
      • (Ferguson no. 9517)

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Tasmania State Library of Tasmania
      Local Id: TL.P 365.9946 BUR

      Holdings

      Held at: National Library of Australia
      Local Id: mc N 1475 item 1546

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Victoria
      Local Id: MCP 919.464042 B93P

      Holdings

      Held at: Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW
      Local Id: DSM/365/8A1

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Queensland State Library of QLD
      Local Id: RBJ 919.464 BUR

      Holdings

      Held at: University of Tasmania Morris Miller Library
      Local Id: DU 198 .P6 B87 1892a
    • Launceston, Northeast Tasmania, Tasmania,: The Examiner and Weekly Courier Offices , 1912 .
      Alternative title: An Excursion to Port Arthur in 1842
      Link: U20364Web resource Sighted 17/11/2011; Digital copy of [1912] edition. See copyright information on site for any usage restrictions
      Extent: [xi], 93, xiip.p.
      Description: illus., map
      Note/s:
      • Foreword, illustrations and additional material by J.W. Beattie.

        Contents include: 'Sorrow Songs from Point Puer' p. 48-52; 'Records from the Office of the Comptroller-General of Convicts': p.53-91; Blank memoranda pages: p.92-93.

      • Includes pages of advertising and an Index to Advertisements
      • Illustrated with photographs by John Watt Beattie.
Last amended 6 Oct 2020 10:56:04
Subjects:
  • Port Arthur, Tasman Peninsula, Forestier Peninsula - Tasman Peninsula area, Southeast Tasmania, Tasmania,
Settings:
  • Port Arthur, Tasman Peninsula, Forestier Peninsula - Tasman Peninsula area, Southeast Tasmania, Tasmania,
  • 1842
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