William Bligh - A Voyage To The South Seas
Facsimile Edition
Published by Hutchinson Group Australia Pty Ltd: Richmond 1979
"The Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter facsimile edition offers a remarkable window into the earliest years of colonial Tasmania, faithfully reproducing one of Australia's first newspapers. Originally published between 1816 and 1819, the Gazette served as the official voice of the fledgling settlement, recording government proclamations, shipping movements, legal notices, and the daily realities of life in Van Diemen's Land. This two-volume facsimile, issued in 1965-1967 by the Public Library of New South Wales in association with Platypus Publications, preserves these foundational documents in accessible and carefully reproduced form.
Spanning Volumes I to IV, the set covers June 1, 1816 to December 25, 1819, capturing a formative period marked by expansion, regulation, and the challenges of establishing order in a remote penal colony. Within its pages are vivid insights into early administration, convict life, trade, and communication with the wider British Empire. The newspaper's blend of official notices and local reporting provides an unfiltered contemporary record, making it an invaluable primary source for historians, genealogists, and researchers interested in Australia's colonial beginnings.
As a facsimile edition, this set combines scholarly importance with practical usability, allowing readers to engage directly with early nineteenth-century print culture without the fragility of original issues. The association with the Public Library of New South Wales further underscores its archival significance. An increasingly desirable set, it would particularly appeal to collectors of Australian colonial history, early newspapers, and institutional facsimile publications, as well as those researching the foundations of Tasmanian society."
Dustjacket with light wear as shown. Book is very clean with no inscriptions. An excellent copy in very good condition overall. Please study photos to further understand condition.
