sketcher, diarist, naturalist and Quaker missionary, was born in Darlington, Durham, on 8 July 1794. He spent six years in Australia, arriving at Hobart Town in February 1832 and departing from Fremantle in February 1838. During this time he travelled the colony extensively on foot, accompanied by his friend and fellow missionary George Washington Walker , and urged many improvements in the conditions of Aborigines, government convicts and assigned servants. In 1832-34 he was based in Van Diemen’s Land, but he travelled farther afield in 1835-38: through New South Wales, to Norfolk Island and Moreton Bay (1836) and to Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Backhouse died on 20 January 1869 in York, England.

Backhouse recorded his journeys in A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies (London 1843), an important source book for the period illustrated after his own and other people’s sketches. Entrance to Port Davey, Van Diemen’s Land and Ben Lomond VDL are stated to be after sketches by Backhouse but so is A Chain Gang (located in New South Wales in the first edition but subsequently corrected to Van Diemen’s Land), which is actually after an engraving by Charles Bruce . Hobart Town 1834 and other views are acknowledged to be after Charles Wheeler . The Mitchell Library holds 19 of Backhouse’s original journals, bound in three volumes, which certainly include original drawings, usually roughly drawn standard views. Other Backhouse material is preserved with the Walker Papers (TU).

Backhouse gave a valuable herbarium collected in Australia and two volumes of botanical data to the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. The Mitchell and National Libraries hold the microfilm index of his papers and published works in the archives of the Linnaean Society and the Society of Friends, London, two other major repositories.

Writers:

Prunster, Ursula

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011