Cirrus@Austlit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

Thomas Wallace Knox (1835-1896) was a journalist, author, writer and traveller. The Land of the Kangaroo tells the adventures of two youths in Australia in a style similar to his earlier The Boy Travellers (1889), and was part of the 'Travel Adventure Series'. In the preface Knox stated that the narrative had been written in order to represent the wonders, growth and development of the colonies in the antipodes. It was sensational in its narrative content - the chapter on the harbour of Melbourne describes convict hulks and bushrangers - and was written in the manner of a boys' adventure novel. Unlike The Boy Travellers Knox did not name the boys who undertook the journey for this travel narrative.