AustLit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

English writer and poet Caroline Woolmer Leakey (1827-1881) moved to Van Diemen’s Land at the age of twenty. She relocated with the intention of assisting a married sister there who was reluctant to entrust her children to convict nurses. Although Leakey spent most of her time living in Hobart, she stayed one year at Port Arthur with friends. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography notes that one year after arriving in Tasmania a fever and a hip complaint rendered her an invalid for the next five years and she turned to the writing of poetry for solace. Bishop Francis Nixon and his wife encouraged her to publish her poems, and her doctor J.W. Agnew sent copies of her work to the Mercury (unknown to Leakey). She published her travel narrative The Broad Arrow in 1859 under the pseudonym Oliné Keese. Written in the style of a moralistic novel, the work detailed Maida Gwynnham's life in England and Van Diemen's Land, and described Hobart Town, Port Arthur and society in the colony. The Broad Arrow was reprinted numerous times, signifying its popularity.