South Australia; Its Advantages and its Resources. Being a Description of that Colony and a Manual of Information for Emigrants
Publisher
John Murray
(Founded 1768, taken over 2002)
Date1848
Object number00001522
NameBook
MediumPaper
DimensionsOverall: 32 x 208 x 128 mm, 0.55 kg
ClassificationsBooks and journals
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionAm immigrant guide book titled 'South Australia; Its Advantages and its Resources. Being a Description of that Colony and a Manual of Information for Emigrants' by George Blakiston Wilkinson.HistoryImmigrant guides of the 19th Century were often a mix of practicality and promotion. Many encouraged their fellow fellow citizens to take the leap and move to an unknown colony where the rewards of their labour would be a new life and potential wealth. The British Government, short of free labourers in Australia, encouraged the same path but these published firsthand accounts were a valuable source of promotion.
Wilkinson's book on South Australia was a result of him spending seven years of "personal observation in the Colony" and contains notes on "agriculture, stock farming, building, gardening, manufacturing in various branches, and last, not least, on mining and mineral productions in that flourishing colony". Over the course of 11 chapters, he also discusses emigrant ships, schools, public houses and convictions of offenders.SignificanceImmigrant guides such as this one by George Blakiston Wilkinson, while intended for those aboard, offer a snapshot of early colonial life in Australia. These guides, while generally optimistic, hint at the rudimentary conditions many of these immigrants faced on their arrival to "this favoured land".
