person or book cover
Issue Details: First known date: 1851... 1851 Adventures in Australia, or, The Wanderings of Captain Spencer in the Bush and the Wilds : Containing Accurate Descriptions of the Habits of Natives, and the Natural Productions and Features of the Country
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The novel is a Robinsonade, in which Spencer is shipwrecked and crosses the continent from north to south then travels east with his horse Tiger, his dog Gipsy, his parrot Charlie and Kinchela, his Aboriginal mentor. The resourceful Captain undergoes every difficulty and privation imaginable, all the time observing the remarkable animals, birds, and insects around him, the scientific names of which are provided for the reader.'

(Source: Oxford Companion to Australian Children's Literature, 1993)

Notes

  • Muir notes that one edition contains '[a]dvertisements headed: "Original Juvenile Library - A Catalogue of New & Popular Works principally for Young Persons", suggesting that the book was intended for children, though from the text alone this is somewhat doubtful' (Source: Muir, A Bibliography of Australian Children's Books, 1970).

Affiliation Notes

  • 19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

    Sarah Bowdich Lee (nee Wallis) (1791-1856) was an author, illustrator, writer, traveller, zoologist, and botanist. Wallis married naturalist Thomas Bowdich (1791-1824) in 1813, and in 1826, three years after Bowdich’s death, married Robert Lee. Under the name of Mrs. Robert Lee she published Adventures in Australia; or, The Wanderings of Captain Spencer in the Bush and the Wilds. Lee stated that it was Captain Spencer's favourable response to her work The African wanderers; or, The adventures of Carlos and Antonio, embracing interesting descriptions of the manners and customs of the tribes and the natural productions of the country (185?), that led him to contact her about his travels. Spencer recited his travel narratives to Lee, resulting in the publication of Adventures in Australia. llustrated by J. S. Prout, Member of the New Water-Colour Society and prolific artist, the work chronicled Spencer's remarkable adventures in Australia in a dramatic travel narrative. Lee began Spencer's story in India, detailing his trip to Australia for reasons of health. The narrative concentrated on Spencer's interactions with Aboriginal people, describing the scenery of the bush, and the flora and fauna. Lee concluded Spencer's narrative upon his arrival in Bombay. Lee wrote a number of natural history and biographical works, including Elements of Natural History (1844) and Memoirs of Baron Cuvier (1833).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Grant and Griffith ,
      1851 .
      person or book cover
      Link: 8516231Full text document AustLit Full Text
      Extent: xi, 364p., [4] leaves of platesp.
      Description: illus.
      Written as: Mrs R. Lee (formerly Mrs T. E. Bowdich)
      Note/s:
      • Digitised by AustLit, 2009, from the collection of the NLA.

      Holdings

      Held at: Adelaide University Barr Smith Library
      Local Id: 919.4 L48

      Holdings

      Held at: University of Queensland University of Queensland Library Fryer Library
      Local Id: Fryer Mono DU360 .L47 1851

      Holdings

      Held at: La Trobe University Bundoora campus, Borchardt Library
      Local Id: 823.8 L481ad

      Holdings

      Held at: Monash University Monash University Library Sir Louis Matheson Library
      Location: Rare Lindsay Shaw Collection
      Local Id: 919.41 L479A

      Holdings

      Held at: National Library of Australia
      Local Id: NL A 823 LEE

      Holdings

      Held at: RMIT University Library Swanston Library
      Location: RMIT Library Special Collection
      Local Id: SPE 823.8 L481

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Tasmania State Library of Tasmania
      Location: Hobart Reading Room
      Local Id: AUD 820A LEE

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Victoria
      Local Id: RARELT 819.93 L515A

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of New South Wales
      Local Id: 919.4042/23

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of South Australia State Library of SA
      Location: Children's Lit. Coll
      Local Id: Au/19 LEE

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Queensland State Library of QLD
      Local Id: RBJ 823.8 LEE

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Western Australia
      Local Id: 823/LEE 1851A
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Dick and Fitzgerald ,
      1870-1879 .
      Alternative title: The Australian Wanderers : or, The adventures of Captain Spencer, his horse and dog
      Extent: xi, 472p., [4] leaves of platesp.
      Description: illus.
      Written as: Mrs R. Lee

Works about this Work

Colonial Adventure Novels Ken Gelder , Rachael Weaver , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel 2023;
The Transnational Kangaroo Hunt Ken Gelder , Rachael Weaver , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Worlding the South : Nineteenth-century Literary Culture and the Southern Settler Colonies 2021; (p. 177-196)

'This chapter traces the development of the colonial kangaroo hunt as a transnational narrative genre. John Hunter’s First Fleet journal (1793) presented the generic conventions that came to define the colonial kangaroo hunt narrative: casting the kangaroo as fitting quarry and giving an exciting account of the chase and the kill. The chapter goes on to map the subsequent transnationalisation of the kangaroo as scientific details and live specimens were shipped back to Europe. Zoological gardens and acclimatisation societies in Europe contributed to the development of the kangaroo hunt as a recognised recreational activity outside Australia. The kangaroo hunt was absorbed into a global narrative to do with travel and adventure, which also informed readers about species biodiversity in the Global South. These themes were explored in novels by Sarah Bowdich Lee and Emilia Marryat Norris, which are analysed alongside narratives and artworks by Europeans who visited Australia to take part in kangaroo hunts. The chapter concludes that –whether encountered when exploring, wandering, bivouacking, settling, or hunting professionally – the kangaroo hunt is represented as an essential experience both in colonial Australia and abroad, one that unfolds in the contexts of imperialism and empire, military occupation, exploration and settlement, developments in the natural sciences, and transnational narratives of adventure.'

Source: Abstract.

The Australian Kangaroo Hunt Novel (1830–1858) as Bildungsroman Ken Gelder , Rachael Weaver , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , July vol. 34 no. 1 2019;

' In Australia – and no doubt in other outposts of empire – hunting provided a rite of passage for ambitious young men to learn about local conditions and establish their colonial credentials. This article argues that the kangaroo hunt narrative therefore operated as a kind of colonial bildungsroman or novel of education. It examines three kangaroo hunt novels written by women who had in fact never travelled to Australia. The first is Sarah Porter’s Alfred Dudley; or, The Australian Settlers (1830). Porter’s novel shows that the kangaroo hunt is incompatible with the bourgeois sensibilities of an aspirant settler who revolts from ‘scenes of blood’. But other colonial bildungsromans invested in the adventure of hunting as a reward in itself. The second published kangaroo hunt novel is Sarah Bowdich Lee’s Adventures in Australia; or, the Wanderings of Captain Spencer in the Bush and the Wilds (1851); the third is Anne Bowman’s The Kangaroo Hunters; or, Adventures in the Bush (1858). Lee’s novel gives free play to the kangaroo hunt, exploring its possibilities for both Aboriginal and settler identities, while Bowman’s novel puts the kangaroo hunt into an ethical discussion of killing on the frontier. These British novelists imagine frontier experiences in colonial Australia by drawing on a range of Australian source material. Their novels present Australia as a testing ground for young male adventurers. The kangaroo hunt is their defining experience, something to survive and in some cases, finally, to disavow as they transition from emigrants to settlers.'

Source: Abstract.

Britishness and Australian Popular Fiction : From the Mid-Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries Hsu-Ming Teo , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 46-66)
'The analysis offered here is [...], a panoptic perspective of the tangled skeins of literary imagination and imitation, gender and genre requirements, editorial control, market considerations and the sheer economics of the international book trade that knotted Australian popular literature into the cultural and economic fabric of the British empire.' (47)
Britishness and Australian Popular Fiction : From the Mid-Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries Hsu-Ming Teo , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 46-66)
'The analysis offered here is [...], a panoptic perspective of the tangled skeins of literary imagination and imitation, gender and genre requirements, editorial control, market considerations and the sheer economics of the international book trade that knotted Australian popular literature into the cultural and economic fabric of the British empire.' (47)
The Australian Kangaroo Hunt Novel (1830–1858) as Bildungsroman Ken Gelder , Rachael Weaver , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , July vol. 34 no. 1 2019;

' In Australia – and no doubt in other outposts of empire – hunting provided a rite of passage for ambitious young men to learn about local conditions and establish their colonial credentials. This article argues that the kangaroo hunt narrative therefore operated as a kind of colonial bildungsroman or novel of education. It examines three kangaroo hunt novels written by women who had in fact never travelled to Australia. The first is Sarah Porter’s Alfred Dudley; or, The Australian Settlers (1830). Porter’s novel shows that the kangaroo hunt is incompatible with the bourgeois sensibilities of an aspirant settler who revolts from ‘scenes of blood’. But other colonial bildungsromans invested in the adventure of hunting as a reward in itself. The second published kangaroo hunt novel is Sarah Bowdich Lee’s Adventures in Australia; or, the Wanderings of Captain Spencer in the Bush and the Wilds (1851); the third is Anne Bowman’s The Kangaroo Hunters; or, Adventures in the Bush (1858). Lee’s novel gives free play to the kangaroo hunt, exploring its possibilities for both Aboriginal and settler identities, while Bowman’s novel puts the kangaroo hunt into an ethical discussion of killing on the frontier. These British novelists imagine frontier experiences in colonial Australia by drawing on a range of Australian source material. Their novels present Australia as a testing ground for young male adventurers. The kangaroo hunt is their defining experience, something to survive and in some cases, finally, to disavow as they transition from emigrants to settlers.'

Source: Abstract.

The Transnational Kangaroo Hunt Ken Gelder , Rachael Weaver , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Worlding the South : Nineteenth-century Literary Culture and the Southern Settler Colonies 2021; (p. 177-196)

'This chapter traces the development of the colonial kangaroo hunt as a transnational narrative genre. John Hunter’s First Fleet journal (1793) presented the generic conventions that came to define the colonial kangaroo hunt narrative: casting the kangaroo as fitting quarry and giving an exciting account of the chase and the kill. The chapter goes on to map the subsequent transnationalisation of the kangaroo as scientific details and live specimens were shipped back to Europe. Zoological gardens and acclimatisation societies in Europe contributed to the development of the kangaroo hunt as a recognised recreational activity outside Australia. The kangaroo hunt was absorbed into a global narrative to do with travel and adventure, which also informed readers about species biodiversity in the Global South. These themes were explored in novels by Sarah Bowdich Lee and Emilia Marryat Norris, which are analysed alongside narratives and artworks by Europeans who visited Australia to take part in kangaroo hunts. The chapter concludes that –whether encountered when exploring, wandering, bivouacking, settling, or hunting professionally – the kangaroo hunt is represented as an essential experience both in colonial Australia and abroad, one that unfolds in the contexts of imperialism and empire, military occupation, exploration and settlement, developments in the natural sciences, and transnational narratives of adventure.'

Source: Abstract.

Colonial Adventure Novels Ken Gelder , Rachael Weaver , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel 2023;
Last amended 14 Mar 2022 10:03:55
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