Letters of G. P. Harris 1803 - 1812: Deputy Surveyor-General of New South Wales at Sullivan Bay, Port Phillip, and Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land.

Sorrento, VIC: Arden Press, 1994. Paperback large wide octavo, good plus condition, black & white sketches, watercolour plates, family tree, edges lightly foxed, light foxing inside covers, bottom corner tips few pages & rear cover little creased, minor edgewear. 158 pp. Barbara Hamilton-Arnold has edited the letters of George Prideaux (G. P.) Harris, a young lawyer from Devon, who spent seven years in New South Wales as Deputy Surveyor-General. He then camped briefly at Sullivan Bay, Port Phillip, before Lieutenant-Governor David Collins transferred his convict colony across Bass Strait to establish Hobart Town in Van Diemen's Land. The letters, papers and sketches provide a dramatic and poignant account of the hardships of life in the fledgling colony. The letters cover his duties as surveyor, explorer and magistrate and, at times, Deputy Commissary and editor of the Derwent Star. He had a special interest in natural history, and he identified a number of new species, including the Tasmanian Devil and Tasmanian Tiger. The letters to his mother and sister in Gandy's Lane, Exeter, and to his brothers in the War Office, London tell the story through the eyes of a high-principled young man, brought up in the tenets of the Quaker faith. His sketches and watercolours are a major contribution to early Australian art.