Queensland

Harold Effermere – A Story of the Queensland Bush – Michael Costello – First Edition 1897

Published by Swan Sonnenschien, London a first edition 1897. Octavo 309 pages in original green cloth covered binding with embossed design to front and git titling to spine. Showing some signs of age but still a very good copy of a rare work.

A superb and rare late 19thC novel based in the Queensland bush – country horse race rigging at its best. A great Australian yarn.

The author Michael Costello was the eldest son of pioneer, pastoralist and explorer John Costello. As a young lad the author often accompanied his dad on risky expeditions driving stock great distances in the bush in difficult conditions. Michael’s biography on his father published much later c1930 is one of our favourite pioneer accounts, almost impossible to find.

Whilst we find the dodgy horse racing elements the most amusing aspect of “Harold Effermere” we also learn to put your swag on the western side of a bush to avoid the morning sun and never to make your tea in the beef billy unless you want tea soup!

Early and rare Queensland Bush Story from a True Blue Bush Boy.

$90.00

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Map of Colony of Queensland 1895

Nicely coloured antique map of Queensland up to Endeavour Reef. Published in London by Bacon a good size 44cm by 32cm with centre fold as issued.

Rather late for a Voyager map but then Queensland was still changing and being populated. Many of the larger northern centres are still to emerge. Fraser Island is still named Great Sandy Island and the ocean has yet to break through Stradbroke Island to form the North and South islands we now know. This happened in 1898.

Price $80.00 unframed
Late 19th century map of historical interest

$80.00

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The Antiquity of Man – Arthur Keith – 2 Volumes (Piltdown Man)

1928 edition by Sir Arthur Keith’s first published 1925 as a single volume. Reviewed and enhanced.

A famous work in that it includes several chapters on the greatest scientific hoax ever … The Piltdown Man … there should be a BBC mini-series on this crime. Charles Dawson discovered the skull fragments that were to provide the “missing link” between apes and man. He was then assisted by the distinguished Dr Smith Woodward. In this book Keith is not sure at all and his chapter headed “The difficulties of reconstruction” alludes to error and alternative interpretations and perhaps even the reality. The reality was exposed in1953 when the bones were found to have consisted of the mandible and some teeth of an orangutan combined with the cranium of a small brained modern human. Grafton Elliot Smith a fellow anthropologist sided with Dawson and Woodward at the Royal Society claiming that Keith’s views were motivated by ambition. Keith later recalled “Such was the end of our long friendship”.

Whilst Piltdown makes the book special there are other excellent anthropological finds well written up, not the least being the Pleistocene skull found at Talgai (near Warwick Queensland) in 1884 but brought out of a cupboard in 1914 and properly categorised by Sir T.W. Edgeworth David …. Robert Etheridge also had a hand.

Much could be said about the author Sir Arthur Keith whose interest in the origins of man stemmed from being put in charge of the Museum of the Royal Society of Surgeons at an early age.

We have included an image of the painting of key players investigating the skull of Piltdown Man … Arthur Keith is seated in the middle with Dawson and Smith Woodward standing behind him to the right …. note a painting of Charles Darwin on the wall behind the group.

Early Man and Piltdown examined but not exposed

$90.00

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A Naturalist in Cannibal Land – 1913 – Arthur Stewart Meek

Meek (1871-1943) was born into a Natural History family. Before he was twenty he was at Coomooboolaroo Station in Queensland collecting for the great Lionel Rothschild for his zoo at Tring. He then travelled New Guinea and the Solomons for both Tring and the Natural History Museum. This is a second impression in very good condition.

This is the book on his travels. Amongst his great finds were the holotyoe and paratype of the Woodlark venomous snake, rare there are still only twelve specimens known. In 1906 he discovered (and shot) the first specimen of the Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing Butterfly … the largest in the world.

Many species are named after him … a crested pigeon, lorikeet, pygmy-parrot, crow, dwarf kingfisher etc and several butterflies and moths.

Meek a fearless Natural Historian who made his mark in New Guinea and the Solomons

$160.00

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Jardine’s Journal – Narrative of the Overland Expedition of the Messrs. Jardine from Rockhampton to Cape York – First Facsimile Issue 1994

Originally published by J.W. Buxton, Brisbane in 1867. Compiled from the Journals of the Brothers, and edited by Frederick Byerley, Engineer of Roads, Northern Division of Queensland.

This is the first and preferred Corkwood Press (Bundaberg) facsimile of 1994 of the near impossible to get 1867 Brisbane original. Very good condition … Manfred Cross’s copy

Includes a facsimile of the map published with that original account.

Voyager Background Note

In 1863 it was decided by Governor Bowen that a settlement should be established at the tip of Cape York at Albany. He selected John Jardine a magistrate at Rockhampton for the task who in turn thought that his sons Frank (22) and Alexander (20) could make their way overland with a mob of cattle. They put together a party and set off in May 1864. There were ten in all including six aborigines. They all convened at Carpentaria Downs the property of J.G. McDonald beyond here the country was basically unknown. It was not until October that they finally set off with a mob of 250 head and 42 horses. They were well armed. They moved North West along the Einasleigh River and were soon followed by native aborigines in war paint but were not attacked – at this point. They reached Parallel Creek and found evidence of cannibalism in an abandoned fire. The landscape softened from large granite boulders to flat sandy beds. They reached 120 miles and decided to rest a few days and it was observed that the forage was good and the cattle and horses improved. They moved on and crossed and later named the Byerley Creek. A fire demolished their camp and much of their supplies were lost. They made on to Staaten River (named by the Dutch during their early marine explorations) and then on to find the Mitchell River having been lost a number of times. On 20th November 1864 the first fight with the aborigines took place on a river bank and several aborigines were wounded or killed but none of the Jardine party. A number of encounters followed and they decided to move on North. Eventually they found the Mitchell which was the site of their bloodiest encounter with up to 30 aborigines killed or wounded before they retreated. As they moved into December storms rolled in and the journey became difficult – they had to resort to killing their cattle as supplies ran out. They moved quickly noting beautiful grazing country in the region of the Archer River. On 11th January 1865 they reached the Batavia River where several of their horses died from eating poisonous plants. They pushed on as hard as they could and sent a scouting party out on 30th January 1865 to find their destination estimated to be 25 miles distant but were unsuccessful. The terrain was difficult steep hills and gullies crossed by narrow deep creeks overgrown by dense tropical vegetation. It was not until 1st March 1865 that the party heard the yelling of scouts sent out from the settlement to find them – just in time. Their journal records that a camp was made at Vallack Point and “there the weary cattle and horses at last found rest, while their drivers were able to indulge in the luxuries of regular feeding and uninterrupted sleep”

$80.00

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Cape River Gold Field – Report of William Rands – 1891

William Rands was Assistant Geologist to Robert Logan Jack. This is his report to the Queensland Parliament on the Cape River Gold Field.

18 foolscap pages of the usual intense observation and detail exhibited by the Queensland geological team of the period. Covers Union Reef, General Grant Reef, Hayward Reef, The Big reef, The Just-In-Time Reef, Hughes Leader, The Mystery Reef (no Mystery!), Springs reef, Mount Remarkable, Morning Star, Martin’s, Bell-Gay, Victoria, and Governor Blackall Reefs and many many more. Crushing reports with yield from Ellen Boss, Treasure and Albion as complied by Commissioner Gill.
An appendix provides a short geological description of rocks and thin section slides of 43 samples taken in the area. The thin section slides being prepared by Clarke of Charters Towers.

The report contain a folding coloured page showing 8 geological sections the first across Mr Davenport and the cape River. And a very nice coloured Geological Sketch Map of part of the Kennedy District by William Rands (50cms by 25 cms) … note our image on the Voyager website is partly truncated because of the limitations of our scanner.

Quality Cape River Report with fine example of the Map

$90.00

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Harold Effermere – A Story of the Queensland Bush – Michael Costello – First Edition 1897

Map of Colony of Queensland 1895

The Antiquity of Man – Arthur Keith – 2 Volumes (Piltdown Man)

A Naturalist in Cannibal Land – 1913 – Arthur Stewart Meek

Jardine’s Journal – Narrative of the Overland Expedition of the Messrs. Jardine from Rockhampton to Cape York – First Facsimile Issue 1994

Cape River Gold Field – Report of William Rands – 1891

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