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'A Complete Account' title page
Issue Details: First known date: 1793... 1793 A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, in New South Wales : Including an Accurate Description of the Situation of the Colony; of the Natives; and of its Natural Productions
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Affiliation Notes

  • 19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

    Captain Watkin Tench (1758-1833) of the Marines was a writer and member of the first fleet of convict ships that travelled to Australia. Except for Chapter XIV, which gave a selection of "amusing" travel diaries of Tench's from throughout his time in the colony, the majority of A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson is a detailed, historical account of the "transactions" of the colony. These travel narratives chronicled the daily conditions of travel through the bush, encounters with Aboriginal peoples, the climate, and the flora and fauna of the colony. The entry on Tench in the Australian Dictionary of Biography notes the influence of Gibbon and Voltaire on his work, and highlights his "interest in the novel, the picturesque and the primitive which foreshadows romanticism". Tench also wrote A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay (1788).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: Geschichte von Port Jackson in Neuholland von 1788 bis 1792
Language: German

Works about this Work

Selling a Penal Colony : The Booksellers and Botany Bay Nathan Garvey , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Script and Print , vol. 31 no. 1 2007; (p. 20-38)
Watkin Tench and the Cold Track of Narrative Gavin Edwards , 2000 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 60 no. 3 2000; (p. 74-93)
Watkin Tench's Sentimental Enclosures : Original Relations from the First Settlement Adrian Mitchell , 1994 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Australian & New Zealand Studies in Canada , June no. 11 1994; (p. 23-33)
Mitchell discusses Tench's motives behind his writings on the First Settlement, arguing that he attempted to produce entertaining works, carefully selecting events, language and literary conventions for that purpose. This is seen most clearly in his use of a tableau that dramatically presents the meeting of the "primitive" with the "civilised" as an ailing aborigine and his son are cared for by the European settlers. But despite the sentimentality and light-heartedness of much of his writing, Tench was pessimistic about the future of Australia, and gave a negative view of the colony in his books.
Selling a Penal Colony : The Booksellers and Botany Bay Nathan Garvey , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Script and Print , vol. 31 no. 1 2007; (p. 20-38)
Watkin Tench's Sentimental Enclosures : Original Relations from the First Settlement Adrian Mitchell , 1994 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Australian & New Zealand Studies in Canada , June no. 11 1994; (p. 23-33)
Mitchell discusses Tench's motives behind his writings on the First Settlement, arguing that he attempted to produce entertaining works, carefully selecting events, language and literary conventions for that purpose. This is seen most clearly in his use of a tableau that dramatically presents the meeting of the "primitive" with the "civilised" as an ailing aborigine and his son are cared for by the European settlers. But despite the sentimentality and light-heartedness of much of his writing, Tench was pessimistic about the future of Australia, and gave a negative view of the colony in his books.
Watkin Tench and the Cold Track of Narrative Gavin Edwards , 2000 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 60 no. 3 2000; (p. 74-93)
Last amended 15 Sep 2021 15:59:57
Subjects:
  • 1780-1790
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