19th-Century Australian Travel Writing
A prolific emigrant guide writer (including the work Queensland, Australia), Charles Haynes Barlee (1822-1882) was the brother of West Australian colonial secretary Sir Frederick Palgrave Barlee, and Ellen Barlee, social commentator and writer. Charles Barlee arrived in South Australia in 1839 before travelling to Sydney and Brisbane. He also worked as a Hansard reporter for the Queensland parliament and edited the Sydney journal Once a Week. Humorous Sketches was published posthumously, having been collected and arranged by his nephew Frederic Rudolph Barlee (barrister, scholar, repertory theatre enthusiast, and author of light verse and plays). Written in the first person and presented in pamphlet form, Barlee’s travel narrative is assertive in its tone and included a description of 'The New Chum', as well as adventures with Aboriginal people in Australia. It concludes with a collection of comical sketches, some of which Barlee had previously published (including the “yarn” Jones V. Jenkyns or the Bushranger's Revenge (1879)).
