History

Compiled by R.M.H. Garvie, assistant to the Hydro-Electric Commissioner, to mark roughly fifty years of hydro-electricity in Tasmania.

An exceptional 1973 Cat & Fiddle Press facsimile reproduction of David Burn's rare 1840 journal. This particular copy features a remarkably well-preserved dust jacket, entirely free of the typical silverfish trail common to this edition although with some shelfwear and surface damage.

A facsimile reproduction of Captain H. Butler Stoney's 1856 account of his residence in Tasmania and his descriptive tour through the island from Macquarie Harbour on the west coast north to Circular Head at Stanley. Stoney served as an officer in Van Diemen's Land during the late convict era and his account covers the people, landscapes, settlements and industries he encountered across the island.

Sir John Franklin arrived to govern Van Diemen's Land in 1837, already well known for his Arctic exploration, but with no experience of colonial administration. He succeeded Sir George Arthur, whose twelve years running the colony with a firm, practised hand left large shoes to fill — and Franklin soon found himself at odds with Arthur's own former Colonial Secretary, John Montagu, still deeply entrenched in the Hobart bureaucracy.