Author: PEIRCE, AUGUSTUS BAKER.
Title: Knocking About. Being Some Adventures of Augustus Baker Pierce in Australia. Edited by Mrs. Albert Leatherbee. Illustrations by the Writer.
Description: First Edition; Med. 8vo; pp. xviii (last page blank), 176 (last page blank); b/w frontispiece, numerous drawings (some full-page others within the text), index; original red cloth, title in gilt on spine, mildly chipped dustjacket, nice association copy with the stamp of Jonathan Wantrup noted collector and bookseller on front endpaper, very good copy. New Haven: Yale University Press; 1924. The is the recollections of a Massachusetts traveller who came to Australia in 1859 as a 19-year-old sailor seeking gold and stayed here until 1892. An artist, Peirce's drawings illustrate the text; his many Australian paintings appear to have disappeared without trace. he earned his living at various occupations including piloting Echuca river boats, working for the great American-Australian photographer Batchelder, touring the panorama 'A Voyage Round the World' through the Victorian countryside, and many other unusual jobs. This is the first publication of Peirce's Australian autobiography.

Keywords: Australian local murray history South Australia New South Wales shipmasters biography inland water transportation Victoria bushrangers aborigines maritime