Australian Voices

Australian Voices presents a broad social history of colonial, predominantly European, Australian life, focusing on the ordinary and the everyday, through the words of Australians of the time and a handful of visitors. This atmospheric anthology comprises letters and diary entries, memoirs and reminiscences - supported by photographs, etchings and paintings - drawn from the period between the arrival of the First Fleet to the end of the First World War. The extracts presented here offer a window into the ways many Australians lived and thought during their country's pioneering days: their first-person accounts are often emotional, sometimes humorous, occasionally idealistic, frequently cynical and critical.