Genealogy Australia

Consisting largely of articles appearing first in journals and then published in 1892 as a complete work, Gilbert Parker gives a glimpse of life and social conditions at the time in Australia.

In the main the material was originally printed in Harpers Weekly, the Sydney Morning Herald, St. James's Gazette, The English Illustrated Magazine, Black and White, and The Illustrated London News. In twenty-three chapters the author takes the reader around each of the colonies looking at various aspects of the life – in time of flood, in time of drought, rural Australia, and urban Australia. There are chapters on Melbourne and Adelaide, and Broken Hill in 1888 and on Brisbane, Cairns, the Hinchinbrook Channel, Townsville, Charters Towers, Mackay, Rockhampton, Mt Morgan, Maryborough, Gympie, Albany, Perth and Freemantle in 1889.

"Perth is not inviting at first sight, bit it improves on acquaintance. There is nothing of the “bounce” about it; it is built for use, and that use is an humble one. Architecture? Look at the Roman Catholic bishop's palace, it is like a remnant of past glory—Corinthian pillars and portico, balconies and broad front; but come near it, how forlorn and dilapidated it looks! The floor of the portico is rotten and full of huge cracks, the pillars are discoloured and unstable-looking, and when you knock at the door, a feeling of loneliness comes upon you, for the sounds appear to re-echo through empty rooms."

This CD contains high quality scanned images of the original book, and has been bookmarked for easy navigation. Pages can be searched, browsed, enlarged and printed out if required.

Click here to download a file of sample pages from this book

Right click on the link and select "save as" - to a location on your hard drive. The sampler can be opened, navigated and searched as with the full CD file/s.

Sample files usually contain the title page, contents, some introductory pages and sample pages from the body of the book. Often the complete index from the original book is included.