[Editor: This is a chapter from A Short History of Australia (6th edition, 1936) by Ernest Scott (1867-1939).]
Bibliographical notes
A sufficient bibliography of Australian history would absorb more space than it would be judicious to allot to it in a work having the scope and aim of this volume; nor is it proposed even to give a complete list of the books which have been used by the author. But a few brief notes concerning each chapter, to guide the reader who desires to obtain more information on particular points, may be useful. A valuable working bibliography is Mr. Arthur Wadsworth’s Catalogue of the Library of the Commonwealth Parliament (1912), which, though not complete, is very full. It is arranged on the Dewey system, and has a good index.
General histories of Australia include Rusden, History of Australia, 3 vols. (1897); Jenks, History of the Australasian Colonies (1895), especially valuable on legal points; Jose, History of Australasia (the edition of 1911, published in Sydney, is excellent); and the same author’s Australasia (London, 1901), which, though brief, is good.
CHAPTER I. — The pieces printed in R. H. Major’s Early Voyages to Terra Australis (1859) are all of great value. They include Torres’s ‘Relation’ of his voyage. Beazley’s Prince Henry the Navigator gives a good account of the Portuguese voyages. Markham, Voyages of Quiros, translates and discusses the Spanish navigator’s adventure at the New Hebrides. Collingridge’s First Discovery of Australia (1906) and the same author’s Discovery of Australia (1895) are excellent surveys. The best work on the subject is that of G. Arnold Wood, The Discovery of Australia (1922). It is well illustrated with maps.
CHAPTER II. — J. E. Heeres, in The Part borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia (printed in Dutch and English, 1899), gives a well-illustrated account of that part of the subject. Backhouse Walker’s volume, Early Tasmania (Hobart, 1902), includes an excellent sketch of the life and voyages of Tasman. Coote’s collection of Remarkable Maps (Amsterdam, 1895 et seq.) is an invaluable work.
CHAPTER III. — Dampier’s Voyages have been reprinted, 1906. His Life, by Clark Russell, is a good brief sketch. Cook’s Journal, edited by Admiral Wharton (1893), contains the authoritative account of the Endeavour Voyage. Cook’s log, and the journals of some of his officers, are printed in Part I., Vol. I., of the Historical Records of New South Wales. There are many biographies of Cook. The latest is by Kitson (second edition, 1911).
CHAPTER IV. — The principal documents respecting the foundation of Sydney are printed in the Historical Records of New South Wales, Vol. I., Part II. Becke and Jeffery’s Admiral Phillip is a serviceable biography of the founder of Sydney. Phillip’s Authentic Journal (1788) records the events of the voyage and the arrival of the First Fleet. Scott’s Life of Lapérouse (Sydney, 1912) relates the reasons for the appearance of the French ships in Botany Bay and the fate of the expedition. Collins’s Account of the English Colony in New South Wales (reprinted 1910) is very valuable for this period.
CHAPTER V. — The literature concerning the convict system is extensive. Many details are to be found in Vols. II. to VII. of the Historical Records of New South Wales and the Historical Records of Australia. The reports of the House of Commons Committees on Transportation, 1812 and 1837, and J. T. Bigge’s reports, 1823, are of the utmost value. Glimpses of the life of the convict settlement are given in such books as R. W. Eastwick’s Master Mariner, the Memoirs of Joseph Holt, Roger Therry’s Reminiscences, Macarthur’s New South Wales (1837), etc.
CHAPTER VI. — Documents relative to the governorships of Hunter, King, and Bligh are printed in Vols. III. to VI. of the Historical Records of New South Wales, and the despatches of Hunter and King are contained in Vols. I. to V. of Series I. of the Historical Records of Australia. The Early Records of the Macarthurs of Camden (Sydney, 1914) contains much useful information.
CHAPTER VII. — Bass’s Journal of his whale-boat voyage to Westernport is printed in Vol. III. of the Historical Records. Scott’s Life of Flinders (1914) treats of the work of Bass as well as of the subject of the book; and the same author’s Terre Napoléon (1910) deals with Baudin’s French expedition. The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson by Ida Lee (London, 1915) is very valuable. Flinders’s Voyage to Terra Australis (1814) is a fundamental authority. Collins is also of first-class importance.
CHAPTER VIII. — The material for this chapter is very scattered, and much of the documentary information is unpublished. Amongst the books which are useful are Bonwick’s Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip (1856) and the same author’s Port Phillip Settlement (1883), West’s History of Tasmania (1832), Backhouse Walker’s papers on the foundation of Hobart and the first settlement of the Derwent in his Early Tasmania (1902), Labillière’s Early History of Victoria (1878), and Gyles Turner’s History of the Colony of Victoria (1904).
CHAPTER IX. — The Historical Records of New South Wales come to an end with the commencement of Macquarie’s governorship, but Vol. VII. contains interesting material relative to his first two years of rule. A Colonial Autocracy by M. Phillips (1909) is an excellent study of his administration. Bigge’s Reports (1822-3) are of extreme importance. Macquarie’s Journals are in manuscript in the Mitchell Library, Sydney.
CHAPTER X. — Cramp’s State and Federal Constitutions in Australia (1913) summarizes the early constitutional enactments in a useful manner. The history of the period has to be gleaned largely from the columns of such journals as the Australian, the Atlas, and the Monitor, all published in Sydney. Patchett Martin’s Life and Letters of Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke, is also useful.
CHAPTER XI. — Mrs. N. G. Sturt’s Life of Charles Sturt (1899) and Sturt’s own Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia (1833) are invaluable records of these remarkable achievements. Mitchell’s Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia (1848) is an essential authority. Favenc’s History of Australian Exploration (1898) and the same author’s Explorers of Australia and their Life Work (1908) are very good and dependable works.
CHAPTER XII. — The official papers respecting the foundation of Western Australia, printed in the House of Commons Papers for 1829, Vol. XXIV., 1830, Vol. XXI., are of primary importance. Irwin’s State and Position of Western Australia (1835) is a little book from the pen of one who was a Governor of the colony. Evidence as to the transportation system in Western Australia is contained in the English Parliamentary Papers for 1856, Vol. XVII. See also Battye’s History of Western Australia (1924).
CHAPTER XIII. — Wakefield’s Art of Colonization, published in 1849, has been reprinted (1913). The best account of the application of Wakefield’s theories in Australia is in R. C. Mills, The Colonization of Australia, the Wakefield Experiment in Empire Building (1915). Hodder’s History of South Australia (1893) was written largely from the papers of George Fife Angas. The reports of the Colonization Commissioners contained in the English Parliamentary Papers, 1836, Vol. XXIX., and 1839, Vol. XVII.; and the reports of the select committee on South Australia 1841, Vol. IV., are of the utmost value. Henderson’s Life of Sir George Grey (1907) devotes particular attention to his work in South Australia. A later work of importance is A. Grenfell Price’s Foundation and Settlement of South Australia (1924).
CHAPTER XIV. — The works of Labillière and Gyles Turner, already cited, and Bonwick’s John Batman (1867), are to be recommended. A paper by the author on ‘Lonsdale and the foundation of Melbourne’ in the Victorian Historical Magazine, Vol. IV. (1915), contains some fresh material. Finn’s (‘Garryowen’) Chronicles of Early Melbourne (1888) cannot be overlooked.
CHAPTER XV. — The histories of Tasmania by West and Fenton are the best general sources of information. The Report of the House of Commons Committee on Transportation, 1837-8, is full of interesting material. Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies (1843), Bonwick, The Lost Tasmanian Race (1884) and Boxall, Australian Bushranging, are good.
CHAPTER XVI. — Much of the important printed material concerning squatting and land is contained in pamphlet literature and in the legislation bearing upon the question. The whole subject requires more study than has yet been given to it. The most comprehensive work is S. H. Roberts’s History of Australian Land Settlement (1924). The several books of the Rev. Dr. Lang — Phillipsland (1847), Cooksland (1847), Historical and Statistical Account of New South Wales (1834), &c., contain much that is interesting. Several memoirs by squatters, such as Curr’s Recollections of Squatting in Victoria (1883), the Reminiscences of Alexander Berry (1912), yield some interesting points. The Early Records of the Macarthurs of Camden (1914) contains authentic material.
CHAPTER XVII. — ‘The resistance to the convict transportation system’ is studied in a paper by the author in the Victorian Historical Magazine, Vol. I. (1911). The reports of the English Prison Commissioners for the period covered by the chapter explain what the new system was. Lord Grey’s Colonial Policy of the Administration of Lord John Russell (1853) expounds the official case. The Sydney and Melbourne newspapers of the period reveal the strength of the resistance to the new transportation policy.
CHAPTER XVIII. — The ‘Papers re proposed alterations in the Constitutions of the Australian Colonies’ contained in the English Parliamentary Papers, 1849, Vol. XXV., and those published during 1850-56 are of much interest, and the debates in the House of Commons and the House of Lords on the Bill of 1850 are not negligible. Chapters VII and XI of Jenks’s History of the Australasian Colonies are a valuable commentary on the constitutional history of the country.
CHAPTER XIX. — Information concerning gold and other mining in Australia is scattered over a wide variety of publications. The books detailed in pp. 382-4 of the Catalogue of the Commonwealth Library have been taken as a guide for the chapter. A comprehensive treatise on Australian mining from the historical and social point of view is much required. The story of the Eureka Stockade is told in Gyles Turner’s Our Own Little Rebellion (1912).
CHAPTER XX. — Grey’s Two Expeditions of Discovery in Australia (1841), Eyre’s Journals of Expeditions of Discovery (1845), McDouall Stuart’s Exploration Across the Continent of Australia (1861-2) and his Explorations in Australia (1865), Leichhardt’s Journal of an Overland Expedition (1847), Landsborough’s Explorations of Australia (1867), and his Journal (1862), Sturt’s Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia (1849), Mitchell’s Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia (1848), Forrest’s Explorations in Australia (1875), are all first-hand narratives. Despatches respecting Burke and Wills are in the English Parliamentary Papers, 1862, Vol. XXXVII.
CHAPTER XXI. — Coote’s History of Queensland (1882) covers the early period. Lang’s Cooksland is useful. The story of the Port Curtis settlement is told in J. F. Hogan’s The Gladstone Colony (1898). Papers on the separation of Moreton Bay from New South Wales are in the House of Commons Papers for 1859, Vol. XVII.
CHAPTER XXII. — The story of South Australia’s undertaking to administer the Northern Territory is contained in the documents in the South Australian Parliamentary Papers from 1863-66. There are interesting letters about the Port Essington settlement in the English Parliamentary Papers, 1843, Vol. XXXIII.
CHAPTER XXIII. — The parliamentary debates and papers of the period covered by the chapter need to be consulted to gain a thorough insight into the controversies. Morris’s Memoir of George Higinbotham, (1895) is good. Gyles Turner’s History of the Colony Of Victoria is strongly biased against McCulloch and Berry. Sir George Bowen’s Thirty Years of Colonial Government (1889) is very valuable. Pratt’s David Syme (1908) throws some side-lights on the questions at issue.
CHAPTER XXIV. — The papers and parliamentary proceeding of the six States, which are very voluminous records, are the chief sources of information. Torrens’s book on the South Australian System of Conveyancing by Registration of Title (1859) explains his Real Property Act. The facts about the various subjects discussed in the chapter are drawn from too wide a field to be conveniently summarized.
CHAPTER XXV. — The parliamentary papers relating to the Pacific and New Guinea are of unusual interest. The New Guinea documents are in the House of Commons Papers 1876, Vol. LIV., 1883, Vol. XLVII., 1884, Vol. LV. The papers for 1884 also contain documents relating to New Caledonia. The Kanaka labour traffic is dealt with in the papers for 1867-8, Vol. XLVIII. George Palmer, in his Kidnapping in the South Seas (1871), gives a personal narrative of experiences. Jacomb, France and England in the New Hebrides (1914), is useful.
CHAPTER XXVI. — Quick and Garran’s Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth (1901) contains an excellent history of the federation movement. The debates of the 1891 Convention were published in one volume.
CHAPTER XXVII. — Quick and Garran, and Harrison Moore’s Commonwealth of Australia (second edition, 1910), contain the best commentaries. The debates of the 1897-8 Convention are printed in four volumes. B. R. Wise, in The Making of the Australian Commonwealth (1913), gives a racy account of the process, but is not free from personal and political prejudices.
CHAPTERS XXVIII and XXIX. — The materials for a study of the work of the Federal Parliament and Government are to be found in the Acts, Votes and Proceedings, Debates, and Parliamentary Papers. Gyles Turner (1911) published a review of the First Decade of the Australian Commonwealth, strongly coloured by the political views of the author. See also M. Willard’s History of the White Australia Policy (1923).
CHAPTER XXX. — The books relating to Australia’s participation in the war are numerous, and it is not proposed here to give a complete list of them. The most important are selected. C. E. W. Bean (part author and general editor), Official History of Australia in the Great War, is published under the authority of the Commonwealth Government. It is very full, consisting of twelve volumes, and is lavishly illustrated. Sir Charles Lucas (general editor), The Empire at War, records the Australian effort as part of the general imperial history. Sir John Monash, The Australian Victories in France, is of first-class importance. P. F. E. Schuler, Australia in Arms, a Narrative of the A.I.F., one of the earliest of the Australian war books, was written by a young soldier who lost his life in the war. F. M. Cutlack, The Australians, their Final Campaign, is a notably good work. Sir Ian Hamilton, Gallipoli Diaries, is a fascinating narrative by the commander of the Gallipoli campaign. Staniforth Smith, Australian Campaigns in the Great War, is a useful general summary. Sydney de Loghe, The Straits Impregnable, and John Masefield, Gallipoli, are both eloquent and vivid. W. J. Denny, The Diggers; P. MacGill, The Diggers, the Australians in France; C. E. W. Bean, Letters from France; St. John Adcock, Australasia Triumphant; Sir E. Ashmead-Bartlett, Despatches from the Dardanelles, an Epic of Heroism; H. W. Nevinson, The Dardanelles Campaign, are all notable books. W. S. Kent-Hughes, Modern Crusaders; and C. Barrett, Australia in Palestine, are valuable. L. E. Reeves, Australians in Action in New Guinea, and F. S. Bassett, Australia versus Germany, the Story of the Taking of German New Guinea, deal with phases of the war in the Pacific. The following books are concerned with the work of particular regiments and sections: A. D. Ellis, The Story of the 5th Australian Division; F. C. Green, The Fortieth; T. H. Darley, With the Ninth Light Horse; W. Devine, The Story of a Battalion; H. B. Collett, The 28th; E. Fairey, The 38th Battalion; M. B. B. Keatinge, War Book of the Third Pioneer Battalion. K. R. Cramp, Australian Winners of the Victoria Cross, is also useful.
CHAPTER XXXI. — The official reports of the Colonial and Imperial Conferences contain material which is essential for the study of the relations between the dominions and the mother-country in recent years. The works of the writers mentioned in the chapter are all easily procurable. There are several anthologies of Australian verse. The best are those edited by Bertram Stevens (1906) and Walter Murdoch (1918).
Source:
Ernest Scott, A Short History of Australia, London: Oxford University Press, 6th edition, 1936, pages 375-382
[Editor: Added an opening bracket before “1845), McDouall Stuart’s”.]
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