Northmost Australia – Logan Jack 2 Volumes First Australian Edition - 1922

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Northmost Australia – Logan Jack 2 Volumes First Australian Edition – 1922

Short Description

… Three Centuries of Exploration, Discovery, and adventure in and around the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. A first edition the Australian edition published by George Robertson, Melbourne in 1922. Two volumes with all 17 separate folding maps.

Robert Logan Jack was the senior Government Geologist for Queensland for 20 years. He replaced Richard Daintree who was the first to hold that position. The best work of its type by far and with a number of unique aspects. Completed in Logan Jack’s final year as he passed away November 1921.

Large, royal octavo, very good condition, nice clean covers, some foxing to page edges and ends as usual due to the tick spongy paper. Maps in great condition.

Volume 1 commences with early exploration – Maghelen, Quiros and Torres and the Duyfken at Cape York followed by the Pera and Aernemdealt. Tasman arrives in 1644 and then pre-Cook the voyages of the Buijs and Rijder in 1756 with Van Asschens and Gonzal. And then we have the Endeavour and Cook’s discovery from the South and East and soon after in 1789 Bligh in the Bounty launch. Flinders with the Investigator and the after “Wreck Reef” the Cumberland and captivity. Philip Parker King in the Mermaid fills the gaps in 1819 and then in the Bathurst a year later. The wreck of the Charles Eaton in 1834. Wickham and Stokes in 1839 to the Normanton and Albert Rivers and Burketown. Blackwood and Yule and the “Fly” and their mark on the Straits.

Then Logan Jack takes us to the interior and much on the great Leichhardt and Kennedy and that other fateful expedition. Back to the coast and Owen Stanley and the Rattlesnake. And then Burke and Wills up the centre and the searching parties … Landsbourough, Walker and McKinley. Closing with good content on the Jardine Brothers up the Cape, the special efforts of first geologist Daintree and then Captain John Moresby (jnr) into the Torres Straits.

Whilst volume I contains hard to find narrative such as the Jardines and Daintree Volume II is a masterclass. After opening comments on Aboriginal and Polynesian labour we commence our explorations with the elusive William Hann and the Palmer River followed by Mulligan and 150 pages of Logan Jack’s own extensive explorations. Ending with explorations gems with Donald Laing, Embley, William Baird, John Dickie, William Lakeland and William Bowden.

We have gone on a bit but fell justified in attempting to describe the effort put into this book and the scarcity of the accounts. The whole wonderfully illustrated by images of the explorers often from family sources and at the rear separate indexes by persons, localities and subjects.

The Further North you go the better it gets in these Volumes.

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