Rolf Boldrewood - My Autobiography, n.d.

MLMSS 6232

fonds

Undated

139280

Microfilm : CY 4553, frames 19-103 (MLMSS 6232)

1 folder - 0.01 Meters
Textual Records - (typescript, photocopy)

Rolf Boldrewood was the pseudonym of Thomas Alexander Browne (1826-1915), pastoralist, police magistrate, gold commissioner and novelist. He was born in England and came to Australia at the age of five. In 1844 he took up a cattle run in the Portland district of Victoria. In 1869 severe droughts drove him off the land and he became in turn a police magistrate and gold commissioner. In 1873 he took up writing and during the next forty years published novels, short stories and articles. His most famous novel, Robbery under arms, was serialised in the Sydney Mail, 1881-82 and publihed as a book in 1889.

Boldrewood's autobiography covers the period c.1800 to 1860. It deals not only with his own life but also that of his father, Sylvester Browne, a shipmaster who had served with the East India Co. and who later commanded his own barque, Proteus on trading and whaling voyages [see 'Notes' below]. Boldrewood writes of his own experiences growing up in Sydney and Melbourne, and later as a squatter in the Portland district of Victoria.

See also T.A. Browne's 'My autobiography', pp.82-92, bound with his 'Our Family Chronicle' at A 2132 (microfilm copy at CY 705, frames 1-112).
See also John C. Brown's logbook for the barque Proteus (Capt. Sylvester Browne): 'Logbook of the Barque Proteus on a Whaling Voyage in the Pacific Ocean; Commanded by S.I. Browne Esq. Jn. C. Brown Chief Mate'. 27 Apr. 1833 - 16 June 1834 (DL MSQ 325: xerox copyflo at CY DL MSQ 325 and microfilm copy at CY 294, frames 1-124).