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'A Narrative of the Expedition' title page
y separately published work icon A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay : With an Account of New South Wales, Its Productions, Inhabitants, &c. : To Which Is Subjoined a List of the Civil and Military Establishments at Port Jackson single work   prose   travel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1789... 1789 A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay : With an Account of New South Wales, Its Productions, Inhabitants, &c. : To Which Is Subjoined a List of the Civil and Military Establishments at Port Jackson
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Affiliation Notes

  • 19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

    Captain Watkin Tench (1758-1833) of the Marines was a writer and member of the first fleet of convict ships that travelled to Australia. His A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay chronicled the journey from England via Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope before their arrival in Botany Bay. In Australia, Tench described the country around Sydney, their interactions with Aboriginal peoples, and the climate, industry, and society of New South Wales. Tench writes in an engaging first-person style. The entry on Tench in the Australian Dictionary of Biography notes the influence of Gibbon and Voltaire on his work, and highlights his "interest in the novel, the picturesque and the primitive which foreshadows romanticism". Tench also wrote A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson (1793).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: Nachricht von der Expedizion nach Botany-Bay
Language: German
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Related Works

Landfall and Arrival Watkin Tench , 1949 extract prose non-fiction (A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay : With an Account of New South Wales, Its Productions, Inhabitants, &c. : To Which Is Subjoined a List of the Civil and Military Establishments at Port Jackson)
— Appears in: Australian Heritage : A Prose Anthology 1949; (p. 39-46)
Arabanoo Watkin Tench , 1989 extract prose (A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay : With an Account of New South Wales, Its Productions, Inhabitants, &c. : To Which Is Subjoined a List of the Civil and Military Establishments at Port Jackson)
— Appears in: Colonial Voices : Letters, Diaries, Journalism and Other Accounts of Nineteenth-Century Australia 1989; (p. 55-59)
The Indians Watkin Tench , 1989 extract prose (A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay : With an Account of New South Wales, Its Productions, Inhabitants, &c. : To Which Is Subjoined a List of the Civil and Military Establishments at Port Jackson)
— Appears in: Colonial Voices : Letters, Diaries, Journalism and Other Accounts of Nineteenth-Century Australia 1989; (p. 51-59)
y separately published work icon 1788 1788 : the Birth of a Nation, Comprising A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay and An Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson; Watkin Tench's 1788 Watkin Tench , Tim Flannery (editor), Melbourne : Text Publishing , 1996 8267005 1996 single work single work biography (taught in 1 units)

'Watkin Tench stepped ashore at Botany Bay with the First Fleet in January 1788. He was in his late twenties, a captain of the marines, and on the adventure of his life. Insatiably curious, with a natural genius for storytelling, Tench wrote two enthralling accounts of the infant colony - A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay and A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson. Tench brings to life the legendary figures of Bennelong, Arabanoo and Governor Phillip, and records the voices of convicts trying to make new lives in their new country.'(Source: Goodreads website)
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Works about this Work

Publishing, Print Culture, and Australian English Amanda Laugesen , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: Ozwords , April vol. 21 no. 1 2012; (p. 7)
Selling a Penal Colony : The Booksellers and Botany Bay Nathan Garvey , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Script and Print , vol. 31 no. 1 2007; (p. 20-38)
Watkin Tench, La Perouse and Lost Horizon Victor Crittenden , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Margin , November no. 70 2006; (p. 5-9) Victor Crittenden discusses the possibility that Watkin Tench wrote a story in French about La Perouse whom he met in Botany Bay in the first days of the establishment of the Colony of New South Wales.
Watkin Tench and the Cold Track of Narrative Gavin Edwards , 2000 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 60 no. 3 2000; (p. 74-93)
Watkin Tench's Sentimental Enclosures : Original Relations from the First Settlement Adrian Mitchell , 1994 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Australian & New Zealand Studies in Canada , June no. 11 1994; (p. 23-33) Mitchell discusses Tench's motives behind his writings on the First Settlement, arguing that he attempted to produce entertaining works, carefully selecting events, language and literary conventions for that purpose. This is seen most clearly in his use of a tableau that dramatically presents the meeting of the "primitive" with the "civilised" as an ailing aborigine and his son are cared for by the European settlers. But despite the sentimentality and light-heartedness of much of his writing, Tench was pessimistic about the future of Australia, and gave a negative view of the colony in his books.
Watkin Tench, La Perouse and Lost Horizon Victor Crittenden , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Margin , November no. 70 2006; (p. 5-9) Victor Crittenden discusses the possibility that Watkin Tench wrote a story in French about La Perouse whom he met in Botany Bay in the first days of the establishment of the Colony of New South Wales.
Selling a Penal Colony : The Booksellers and Botany Bay Nathan Garvey , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Script and Print , vol. 31 no. 1 2007; (p. 20-38)
Fiction Adrian Mitchell , 1981 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Oxford History of Australian Literature 1981; (p. 27-172)
Watkin Tench's Sentimental Enclosures : Original Relations from the First Settlement Adrian Mitchell , 1994 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Australian & New Zealand Studies in Canada , June no. 11 1994; (p. 23-33) Mitchell discusses Tench's motives behind his writings on the First Settlement, arguing that he attempted to produce entertaining works, carefully selecting events, language and literary conventions for that purpose. This is seen most clearly in his use of a tableau that dramatically presents the meeting of the "primitive" with the "civilised" as an ailing aborigine and his son are cared for by the European settlers. But despite the sentimentality and light-heartedness of much of his writing, Tench was pessimistic about the future of Australia, and gave a negative view of the colony in his books.
Watkin Tench and the Cold Track of Narrative Gavin Edwards , 2000 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 60 no. 3 2000; (p. 74-93)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (6)
Last amended 15 Mar 2022 13:21:37
Subjects:
  • Botany Bay, Botany area, Sydney Southern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,
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