The Wollaston Journals: Volume 3, 1845-1856

The Wollaston Journals: Volume 3, 1845-1856 is the final volume of a revised edition of the journals of John Ramsden Wollaston, an Anglican clergyman who migrated to Australia with his family in 1841. Volume 3 covers the period 1848-1856, during which Reverend Wollaston was transferred from Bunbury to Albany and subsequently appointed the first Archdeacon of Western Australia. Volume 3 differs from the previous two by including a significantly greater proportion of Wollaston’s correspondence - private, official, and public - which reveal his relationships with friends, colleagues, and government officers; topics of contemporary religious and social discourse; and particular projects such as the development of the Annesfield Aboriginal community in Albany. More than a century and a half after Wollaston’s death, Volume 3 completes the life story of a remarkable pioneer and provides a fascinating insight into early colonial life. As Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Bolton AO, comments in his introduction to Volume 3: [Wollaston] places us in his debt by his vivid and carefully observed portraits of people who were still coming to terms with their new landscapes, and landscapes on which the settlers had not yet made a lasting imprint.