Five Years Under the Southern Cross: Experiences and Impressions

In 1912 there were published the statistics of the religious census for the entire Commonwealth, and they form instructive reading. The face value of the figures is considerable...

Two cities of Australia lay claim to the designation of the “Golden City”--Ballarat and Bendigo. Needless to say that the cities are rivals, and needless further to say that I a...

In the year 1913 Messrs. Fred. B. Smith and Raymond Robins, the leaders of the “Men and Religion Movement” in America, paid a visit to Australia. They were received with open ar...

The seasons in Australia are, of course, the exact reverse of those in England. The longest day in England is the shortest day in Australia, and vice versa. June 21st is Austral...

The problem of obtaining water, of conserving it, and of distributing it, is _the_ problem of Western Australia. In the Eastern States there are many natural waterways, which in...

Robert Louis Stevenson, who knew and loved the Southern Pacific, declared that he loved Sydney “for its bits of old London and Paris.” That sentence raises the veil, and reveals...

The increasing number of immigrants arriving on Australian shores is an eloquent witness to the fact that Australia is slowly winning a reputation “at home” as the “working man’...

If, to the average Briton, Australia represents the limit of distance from “home,” what can Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Islands of the Southern Pacific represent? They are th...

No person could desire a better introduction to Australia than that which the city of Adelaide affords. It is the port where passengers, weary of the long sea voyage from Englan...

It is intensely interesting in a new country like Australia to watch the evolution of the aristocracy. The process is very rapid. That old idea about ten generations being neces...

Let no man declare anything to be impossible until he has seen the Mallee; he will then be in a position to affirm the reality of natural miracle wrought with the co-operation o...

While it may be far from exact to say, with certain modern philosophers, that climate creates and explains religions, it is undoubtedly true that climate exercises a modifying e...

A period of five years is sufficiently long to enable a man to correct or to confirm his earlier impressions of a people. Looking backward, I find I have very little, if anythin...

Passengers from England to Australia via the Cape generally touch Australian soil first at Albany. They thus miss the true “gateway” into the country, Fremantle. This latter cit...

The sight of a map such as this map of Tasmania which lies before me causes an Englishman who beholds it for the first time to deal severely with himself, to interrogate himself...

In this our lazy midsummer holiday in February, our resting-place is on the margin of the “bush.” As befits the occasion and the place, we have laid in a stock of bush stories,...

A country spacious and sparsely inhabited. A land where men found gold or reared cattle. A remote part of the world into which Dame Fashion dare not penetrate. And, above all, a...

It was the first time I had seen a real live squatter and his daughter, and the spectacle produced quite a shock. It was so unexpected, so utterly contrary to all that I had ima...

The marvel of Queensland grows upon one the more the country is studied. I have spoken about its vast territory, its small population, and its almost infinite possibilities in m...

It is to one of the most highly esteemed citizens of Melbourne that I owe the following thrilling narrative. He is a gentleman whose personal service, influence, and money have...

What the over-learned but fascinating Burton, in his “Anatomy of Melancholy,” wrote of Australia, nearly three centuries ago, remains true for vast numbers of people in the Old...

Who in England does not know the Tasmanian apple--rosy, juicy, and expensive--appearing about Easter, and continuing until the English orchards yield their own annual output? A...

He was the first of a large number of young fellows who came to me asking for an introduction to some employer or other in the city--an Englishman, of course, newly arrived from...

Years ago the Christy Minstrels sang a droll song about the adventures of a Chinaman in Botany Bay. London audiences rocked with laughter at the mention of the famous convict se...

The northern territory of Australia constitutes the “grand problem” of the Commonwealth. How vast a problem that is no man can realise until he in person visits the north. There...

When the first settlers came to Australia they found in possession of the country a black population, representing a humanity low down in the scale. The native population was ne...

I have no intention of discussing Australian politics. All that I shall attempt is a little portraiture, without the slightest “touching up.” In 1910 Labour was triumphant at th...

From Victoria to Queensland is an ascent in many ways. To begin with, it means a railway journey of nearly thirteen hundred miles from south to north. Each mile brings one neare...

I freely admit that Van Diemen’s Land greatly fascinated me. Its varied scenery, its mountains, its mild climate, its fertility, each left their impression. I was fortunate enou...

The ideal holiday in Australia is a holiday in the “bush.” There are two Australias--one of the cities and towns; another of the country and the bush. The “country” is the culti...

To the Australian shores there pass, in ever-increasing numbers, steamers of every size and of every nationality. They go from America, from India, from Japan, from China, from...

Once a year, at least, each Australian State gives demonstrable evidence, in the most attractive manner, of its natural wealth. Every State has its annual Agricultural “Show” to...

The day had been intolerably hot. A copper haze hung over the landscape, weighing upon it with the solemnity of a funeral pall. All life was weary. The leaves of the blue gum tr...