Cirrus@Austlit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

Alexander Tolmer (1815-1890), was a South Australian police officer and Police Commissioner. He published his Reminiscences of an Adventurous and Chequered Career at Home and at the Antipodes in 1882. The two-volume work begins with Tolmer's parentage and early life, and charts his experiences at sea, and fighting in Portugal, before his voyage to South Australia via South Africa. In Australia, Tolmer described his career in the colonial police force, crime, encounters with Aboriginal peoples, agriculture and industry, and the history of exploration of South Australia. Tolmer also travelled to Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales, giving a description of the discovery of gold in South Australia. In his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography the text is described as an "engaging and egotistical work".