Cirrus@Austlit

Nineteenth-Century Travel Writing

Hume Nisbet (James Hume Nisbet 1849-1923) was a Scottish-born travel writer, prolific novelist and artist. A lengthy narrative, Nisbet’s A Colonial Tramp Travels and Adventures in Australia and New Guinea chronicled his travels from London to Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand and Tasmania in a conversational, first-person style. Nisbet constructed himself as an experienced traveller and travel writer, who traveled for the sole purpose of "grasp[ing] the world ... with my note-book" (2). He described the landscape, trials of the colonial settler, and praised Melbourne for its youth and beauty, though professes to say less about New South Wales as it is fully settled and therefore has less advantages for the potential emigrant. Nisbet also illustrated his work.