Nineteenth-Century Travel Writing
Lieutenant Colonel Godfrey Charles Mundy (1804-1860) was a British army officer, Lieutenant Governor of Jersey, and author. Mundy wrote the travel narrative Our Antipodes: Or, Residence and Rambles in The Australasian Colonies with a Glimpse of the Gold Fields (1852) in three editions. It was revised and republished the same year, and again in 1855, with these later editions collapsed into one volume. Mundy's narrative was taken from diaries that were written over a period of five years, during his residence in Sydney and his various rambles (on duty and during leisure) through New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and Victoria. Written in a conversational manner, Mundy detailed his voyage to Australia, his life in the colonies, the Aboriginal populations, convicts, his excursions to neighbouring colonies, emigration, and his journey to New Zealand. Our Antipodes was illustrated with landscapes and lively scenes engraved from his own sketches. Mundy previously authored Pen and Pencil Sketches in India (1832).