Nostalgia and belonging

Henry George Lamond writing the Whitsunday Islands

Authors

  • Celmara Pocock University of Southern Queensland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1017/qre.2015.5

Keywords:

Henry George Lamond, Whitsunday Islands, Great Barrier Reef tourism, outback pastoral identity

Abstract

Henry George Lamond is no longer a household name, but he was once popular and widely known in Australia and overseas. An extremely prolific writer, he published fifteen books of fiction and non-fiction, and more than 900 essays and magazine articles in his lifetime. His essays and articles include writing in a wide range of subjects and genres, from romantic fiction to practical agricultural advice. This article concerns a small portion of Lamond’s lesser known writing, specifically his portrayals of the Whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef tourism. Lamond is better known as a rural outback writer than an island writer, and this article explores how he maintained a strong outback pastoral identity even as he wrote from and about the tropical islands of the Whitsundays.

Author Biography

  • Celmara Pocock, University of Southern Queensland

    Celmara Pocock is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba. The research for this article was undertaken while she was the John Oxley Library Fellow at the State Library of Queensland.

References

Barr T. 1990. ‘No swank here? The development of the Whitsundays as a tourist destination to the early 1970s’, in Studies in North Queensland History. Townsville: James Cook University.

Barrett C. 1935. ‘Dunk Island days’, Walkabout, 1(12): 33–6.

Bonnin N 2000. ‘Lamond, Henry George (1885–1969)’, Australian dictionary of biography (Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University), http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lamond-henry-george-10780/text19117.

John Oxley Library 1905–68, ‘Henry George Lamond Papers’, in John Oxley Library, OM73-49, OM73-49, State Library of Queensland, Australia.

Lamond H.G. 1931, Horns & hooves: Handling stock in Australia. London: Country Life.

—— 1933–ca. 1937, ‘By billabong and scrub’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8871, OM 73-49/34-35, 35: 9/1-88, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

—— 1934a. An aviary on the plains. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.

—— 1934b. ‘Letter to Mr Marsh’, in National Library of Australia, MS 6474, Canberra.

—— 1936, ‘My island home’, Walkabout, 3(1): 41, 3, 5, 7.

—— 1937a. ‘By billabong and scrub’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8871, OM 73-49/34-35, 35: 9/33, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

—— 1937b. ‘Whitsunday Islands’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8873, OM 73-49/38-40, 39: 10/7, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

—— 1939. ‘Island tourists’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8873, OM 73- 49/38-40, 39: 10/31, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

—— 1945. Dingo, the story of an outlaw. New York: William Morrow.

—— 1946. Brindle royalist: A story of the Australian plains. New York: William Morrow.

—— 1949. ‘Early island tourists’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8873, OM 73-49/38-40, 39: 10/106, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

—— 1952. ‘Daydream Island — News Review’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8873, OM 73-49: 38-40, 40: 10/167, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

—— 1953a. Big red. London: Faber & Faber.

—— 1953b. ‘Island Incidentals’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8873, OM 73- 49/38-40, 40: 10/199, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

—— ca. 1933. ‘By billabong and scrub’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8871, OM 73-49/34-35, 35: 9/3, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

—— n.d. a. ‘Henry G. Lamond’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8866 OM 73-49/8-12, 12: 1/457, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

—— n.d. b. ‘Island holidays’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8877 OM 73- 49/54-58, 54: 10/304, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

—— n.d. c. ‘Tourists on the track’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8864 OM 73-49/5-7, 5: 1/146, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

—— n.d. d. ‘Untitled [Biography for adventure]’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8866 OM 73-49/8-12, 12: 1/458, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

—— n.d. [ca. 1937]. ‘Whitsunday Islands — 2’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8873, OM 73-49/38-40, 39: 10/8, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

Lamond H.G., writing as Flight, n.d. [ca. 1949]. ‘Tropical fruit’, in Henry George Lamond Papers, Box 8869, OM 73-49/25-30, 28: 7/95, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

Lamond H.G., writing as U.9.L 1948. ‘An island holiday’, Cummins & Campbells Monthly Magazine, 24(4): 19–22.

Napier S.E. 1928. On the Barrier Reef: A story of Australia’s coral wonderland, abridged for use in Schools. Sydney: Cornstalk.

Pocock C. 2003. ‘Romancing the reef: History, heritage and the hyper-real’, PhD thesis thesis, James Cook University, North Queensland.

—— 2005. ‘“Blue lagoons and coconut palms”: The creation of a tropical idyll in Australia’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 16(3): 335–49.

—— 2006. ‘Sensing place, consuming space: Changing visitor experiences of the Great Barrier Reef’, in K. Meethan, A. Anderson and S. Miles (eds), Tourism, consumption and representation: Narratives of place and self. Cambridge: CABI, pp. 94–112.

—— 2010. ‘Visiting the Great Barrier Reef’, Queensland Historical Atlas, vol. 10, http://www.qhatlas.com.au/content/visiting-great-barrier-reef.

—— 2012. ‘Sense matters: Aesthetic values of the Great Barrier Reef’, in S. Dudley (ed.), Museum objects: Experiencing the properties of things. London: Routledge, pp. 241–53.

Reid F. 1954. The romance of the Great Barrier Reef. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.

Wigmore L.G. 1932. ‘Blazing beauty — new world of coral reef — Man Friday — will be world’s playground’ (No. 1), Sun, 9 January.

—— 1933. ‘Like pirates — Hayman Island tourists come home — shorts were the vogue’ (No. 3), Sun, 28 January.

Published

2015-06-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Pocock, C. (2015). Nostalgia and belonging: Henry George Lamond writing the Whitsunday Islands. Queensland Review, 22(1), 49-61. https://doi.org/10.1017/qre.2015.5