The Oxford book of Australian travel writing

Abstract

Travel has always been central to the experience of living in Australia and to giving that life meaning. For Aboriginal Australians, identity was bound up in the travelling of the land. For non-Aboriginal Australians, the sense of being Australian has involved comparisons with other places - England, Europe, Asia or America. Australians, despite the high cost of travel and enormous distances, have become some of the world's most enthusiastic travellers, holding more passports proportionate to population than anywhere else. Given the importance of travel for Australians, it may seem surprising that this should be the first attempt comprehensively to anthologize Australian overseas travel writing. The three editors - all specialists in Australian travel writing - have assembled sixty extracts from the works of writers, soldiers, explorers, missionaries, journalists and public figures. In doing so they have selected extracts from autobiographies and histories, as well as formal travel writings. The work is arranged chronologically, in five different sections. Contributors include Alfred Deakin, Henry Lawson, Ethel Turner, Douglas Mawson, Martin Boyd, Frank Clune, Patrick White, Jill Kerr Conway, Christopher Koch, Alan Moorehead, David Malouf, Clive James, Germaine Greer, Peter Conrad, and Robyn Davidson. The anthology is accompanied by an extended introduction. Each section is preceded by an historical note, and each extract by a biographical note. The volume records and celebrates a literature that has always enjoyed great popularity in Australia.

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