Bryson in Australia
1 July 2017

tI have something to admit – I’ve never been to Uluru. I have traveled to Europe, seen the Tower Brige and the Arc de Triumphe, I have wandered the gardens of Versailles and walked the plains where Hannibul slaughtered the Romans, but I have never been to Uluru, and it doesn’t seem to be all that likely I’ll be going there in the near future. The reason that I raise this is because in this book Byrson pretty much describe Uluru, a rock of which there is nothing like it in the entire world, and dominates your vision as you approach it, rising like a lone monolith in an empty desert, literally defines Australia. In fact you cannot arrive in Australia without seeing an image of Uluru. Actually, there are probably quite a few Australians in my position, well, not quite because if they can afford to go to Europe then they can certainly afford to go to Uluru.

tAnyway, the impression that I got from this book is that Bill Bryson absolutely loves Australia, and honestly what is there not to love – sun, sand, wonderful beaches, lovely people, and a developed and peaceful country. Okay, granted, pretty much everything in Australia is out to kill you, and we have pretty much each and every one of the top ten deadliest snakes in the world (not to mention shells that spit poison and jelly fish that make the beaches uninhabitable in the summer), but the thing is that for those of us who live in Australia we just shrug our shoulders, say ‘she’ll be right mate’ and ‘no worries’, and get on with life. Actually, in all my time in Australia I have seen a grand total of two living snakes (which doesn’t count the snake that one of my housemates killed with a mop and tossed over the neighbour’s fence, namely because I wasn’t there to see that spectacle – oh, and my house mate was French).

tSure, Australia has its problems, and sure, Australia isn’t anything like the old world with its grand castles, beautiful churches, magnificent works of art, or even a theatre scene that would keep me entranced for months, but that isn’t why people come to Australia. People come to Australia to experience the life style, the wonder, to cruise the harbour, and to visit the beaches. In short, people don’t come to Australia to see things that other people have built, but rather they come to Australia to see nature in all of its glory. That might be saying something considering that around eighty percent of Australia is desert, but outside of that eighty percent you have a variety of landscapes and climate that is very hard to beat. Hey, the United States doesn’t have any tropical rainforests that I’m aware of, nor is there a danger of a kangaroo taking out your car while you are driving down the road.



tOh, and if there is anything that describes the Australian lifestyle it is this:



tI would say that Bryson traveled all over the country, but the thing is that Australia is so huge, and there is so much here to explore, whether it be the struggles of the early explorers and colonists, or simply the natural beauty, that it would be impossible to do in a couple of trips, and from what I gathered from the book he was here for quite a while (which suggests that his wife must be very supportive of him going off and gallivanting around the world). He even has a friend come with him for part of the trip, which added a little spice to his generally solo travels. I guess that is why he finishes off with the Grey Nomads, retirees who sell up, buy a campervan, and simply spend their golden years traveling across the country.

tThere are a couple of things that I probably should mention that come out of this book though, the first being the explorers. I grew up hearing all about the explorers, and in a way, as a kid, they were my heroes. I would be constantly reminded of them, and their routes, when I looked at a map to see the Stuart Highway heading up through the centre of Australia, and the Eyre Highway heading from Adelaide to Perth. However, one thing that has come out about them as I have grown older is how insane they were. There is the story of Burke and Wills, who left Melbourne to find an inland route to the north and were so convinced that there had to be an inland sea that they decided to take everything (and when I say everything, I mean everything), except extra supplies of water. Needless to say that they didn’t make it.

tOh, and there was Stuart, who attempted to cross the centre of Australia, almost killed himself, then tried it again with similar results, and if coming to the brink of death twice was not enough, he made a third attempt, which was successful. However, there was an interesting anecdote (I’m not sure of the truth of the story though), that when he wandered into the dead centre he encountered some Aboriginals who greeted him with the Freemason’s greeting, and then proceeded to demonstrate how they knew how to tie a shoelace – clearly he wasn’t the first person to come here, and who these previous travelers were remains a mystery (and no doubt the died in the attempt). Oh, there is also the running joke about drinking urine, namely because when you are dying of thirst you will go to extreme lengths to survive (not that it will actually do any good considering the salt content).

tThen there is this aspect of Australia that makes it seem forgotten. It is basically at the far flung reaches of the world, further away than pretty much anywhere (well, not as far flung as Tristan da Cunha), surrounded by water, and the only major metropolises lie in the South-Eastern corner of the country. It takes seven hours to fly to Singapore, and no doubt even more to get to Los Angeles. Bryson also makes a quirp as to how nobody actually knows the name of the Prime Minister of Australia (it’s Malcolm Turnbull by the way), nor anything about our politics. However, one interesting titbit he points out is that when he was here there was this case going through court, a defamation case, involving a journalist writing some things about two government ministers, and it just happened that these two ministers had the names Abbott and Costello. Mind you, Tony Abbott did end up being a bit of a joke, going down in history as one of the most disliked Prime Ministers in Australia, and even though he has since been kicked out of the position he still sits there with this absolutely strange belief that the people of Australia actually want him back.

tI will finish off by speaking about the Aboriginals, who are referred to as Australia’s forgotten people. In reality the are, and our treatment of them is nothing short of shameful. When pretty much hunting them for sport and committing wholesale genocide didn’t work (that is kill off the ones that weren’t killed off by the introduction of European diseases), we then went about confiscating their children and attempting to raise them as Westerners. Well, that didn’t work and now we have his horrendous underclass in the cities (that you rarely see by the way), and communities living in what is in effect third world conditions in the outback – which are also being ravaged by drugs and alcohol, as well as petrol sniffing (though that isn’t anywhere near as bad a problem as it used to be). Bryson seemed to think that they simply lurked in the shadows as people wandered by them without a care in the world, or even acknowledging their existence, but I can assure you that if you encounter a group of them at night, when there is nobody else around, then you will know about it. However, it is true that you rarely, if ever, see one serving behind the counter at a store, or anywhere for that matter. Okay, some of them do land up with decent jobs, but the problem is that there is still a huge amount of prejudice towards them. Yet I remember this one aboriginal I knew at primary school – the only one at school by the way - and he was a wonderful person. I don’t know what happened to him, but I still remember him following me around as I was doing library duties, keen to learn as much as he could.

Bill Bryson is a very funny travel writer and his voyage down under is quite funny. I did not really use it when I was in Australia though to be honest. It is more for entertainment than a guide book.

In a Sunburned Country is what it is. Pure Bryson all the way and I loved every minute of it. It is not meant to be a scholarly course on Australia history but it is informative and fun. Considering Bryson's repeated mention of the many things that can kill you and the possibility of drinking your own urine, it's a wonder that we come away with a desire to see Australia for ourselves. But we do. Along with Bryson's familiar humor, he manages to capture the vastness of the land, the people, the diversity of nature, the beauty of this country. He wraps it up so well in his quote:

"Australia is an interesting place, it truly is and really is all I'm saying."

Enough said. This is an entertaining read, it truly is, just saying.

4.75 Stars - Our Great Southern Land has been greatly under-appreciated & misunderstood since it’s ’discovery’ by Captain James Cook aboard HMS Endeavour. Prior to the aforementioned event, it was the British Naval heavies that set Cool off on a journey to find the “Terra Australis Incognita” via a secret mission envelope following his ‘successful’ mission in Tahiti. Being misunderstood & under appreciated as a Land dates back to this time, for the British never really knew what they had stumbled upon.. a place so unique with it’s dire yet plentiful terrain, weird place oddball hopping marsupials & yet to be discovered marvels like the platypus..

Bill Bryson, I’m his one-of-a-kind prose choc full of delicate humour, self deprecating glory has managed unlike anyone before him to truly capture the spirit & wonder that is the country I call home. The greatest continent in the world, the most liveable country in the world - Australia.

Bryson might not be to everyone preferred palette, to be sure, yet no one could peradventure that he is a highly skilled & often scarily astute, observer!

Whether he is intrinsically retelling his abnormal napping decorum or depicting the discovery of a long thought extinct insect, Bryson thrives in his duty as a story teller & relishes every opportunity’s gets to showcase the good in people, in society, in inanimate objects basically in anything at all he is successful in engaging the reader in embracing the sublime joy in the little things.

Every Australian is captured here, the larrikins, the yobbo’s the indigenous, the masses, it doesn’t matter whom you are, chances are Bryson somehow manages to capture the spirit of not only the population, but the habitat, the flora & fauna but most of all, the spirit of this sunburnt country. This spirit that’s so often misunderstood it takes a truly deft touch to represent it in a way that holds up to scrutiny & rings true 20+ years later.

This is a journey ALL Australians and for that matter all those even remotely curious about Australia, must take. What starts as a fact filled romp through the outback, turns into an epic journey about the down to earth obliging & uniquely sun matured nature of Australia and its people.

For this, the author need be commended for a depiction so true it feels timeless.

Whatever subject Bill Bryson writes about,he has the ability to turn it into first class entertainment.This book was all the more enjoyable for me,as it brought back memories of the year I spent in Australia,a country I became very fond of. With a country like Australia,which is known as the land down under,with its inverted seasons,unique wild life and history of convict settlement,Bryson never lacks for material.He visits the major cities and even travels the Australian outback on the Indian-Pacific train.I had contemplated that journey,but didn't quite undertake it.
His trademark commentary on each place he visits is delightful.Particularly enjoyed his humorous description of Canberra,the capital,where I lived.
Bryson also has a fair bit to say,about all the deadly creatures that inhabit Australia,such as the Box Jellyfish,snakes etc.I remained blissfully unaware of those,in the pre-internet days and read Bryson's book a long time after returning from down under.Also missed visiting Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and Bryson's description made me wish I had,after going so near.
Most of Bryson's travel books are very interesting,but this one is among his best,alongwith the delightful A Walk in the Woods.

Bryson explores Australia and concludes that it is very big, with many things that want to kill you - except people, people are friendly. I didn’t learn much new, but I appreciate the comprehensive lessons that Bryson tries to communicate, in regard to history and the aborigines. A little bit outdated now, but perfectly ok.

This was my first book by Bill Bryson as well as a great, educating read! I understand now, why Bill Bryson is so popular, because this non-fictional account of his trip to Australia is wonderful and humouristic from beginning till end. I already have 2 other books by Bill Bryson on hold at the library because this is definitely an author I'm curious to get much more familiar with.

Bill Bryson is such a funny guy, you end up learning a lot and laughing all the way through! Have lived in Australia for 5 years myself, I was stunned of how much I didn't know about it.

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Contains spoilers



A wonderful read! From belly laughs to joy, from horror to disbelief….. in this book we have a riveting journey though this amazing and oh-so-different continent. Surely there are few authors who could begin to tackle the scope of this giant hunk of land, but Bryson is a master writer, and he tackles Australia superbly well - with enthusiasm, insight and bucket loads of his wonderful self-deprecating humour.

These were some of my favourite bits in the book:

* His trip to White Cliffs, in opal mining territory, where the temperature gets up to 110F, and people live in cave dwellings in order to keep cool.

* His drive in Victoria along the coast, an area famous for shipwrecks.“With its wild currents and famous fogs, the south Victorian coast was long notorious to mariners. If you took all the water away, you would see 1,200 ships lying broken on the seabed, more than almost anywhere else in the world.”

*His discussion of ‘acclimatization’ (the introduction of non-indigenous animals to Australia). The mad proliferation of rabbits – halted for a while by the introduction of the horrible illness Myxomatosis, but now numbers are increasing again. Other introductions include camels, donkeys and foxes. (There are now five million wild donkeys in Australia). ”The consequences for native species have been devastating. About 130 mammals are threatened. Sixteen have become extinct – more than in any other continent. And guess what is the mightiest killer of all? According to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, it is the common cat….there are twelve million of them out there, inhabiting every niche in the landscape.” Foreign plants have also been introduced. ”Prickly pear, a type of pulpy cactus native to America, was introduced in Queensland early in the twentieth century ….by 1925, thirty million acres were overrun with impenetrable groves of prickly pear up to six feet high. It is an almost absurdly dense plant – an acre of prickly pear weighs 800 tons, as against about fifteen tons for an acre of wheat – and a nightmare to clear.”

*His respect and awe for the Aborigines, who are likely to have come to Australia about 60,000 years ago. Their amazing capacity for survival in difficult environments. His disbelief in the way they were treated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (they were often hunted down and shot, like animals), and his concern for their well-being today.

*His description of the wonders of The Great Barrier Reef. I had no idea it was so big ”Depending on which sources you consult, the Great Barrier Reef covers 280,000 square kilometres or 344,000 or something in between; stretches 1,200 miles from top to bottom, or 1,600; is bigger than Kansas or Italy or the United Kingdom. Nobody can agree really on where the Barrier Reef begins and ends, though everyone agrees it’s awfully big. Even by the shortest measure, it is equivalent in length to the west coast of the United States”. Swimming over it was a scary experience. "At the top of the steps were large bins containing flippers, snorkels and masks. We kitted up and plopped in. I had assumed that we would be in a few feet of water, so I was taken aback – I am putting this mildly – to discover that I was perhaps sixty feet above the bottom. I had never been in water this deep before and it was unexpectedly unnerving – as unnerving as finding myself floating sixty feet in the air above solid ground. This panicky assessment took place over the course of perhaps three seconds, then my mask and snorkel filled with water and I started choking.”

*His stories about men obsessed with exploring the horrendously hostile interior of Australia. "It is almost not possible to exaggerate the punishing nature of Australia’s interior. For nineteenth-century explorers, it wasn’t just the inexpressible heat and constant scarcity of water, but a thousand other miseries. Stinging ants swarmed over them wherever they rested. Natives sometimes attacked with spears. The landscape was full of thorny bushes and merciless spinifex (plants) whose silicate pricks nearly always grew infected from sweat and dirt. Scurvy was a constant plague. Hygiene was impossible. Pack animals grew frequently crazed or lost the will to go on….” Some of these explorers returned from their adventures in the interior, but many didn’t.

*The degree to which he was bowled over and awed by Ayers Rock (now called Uluru, its Aborigine name). He writes very movingly about the experience of seeing it.

*His story about Kingsford Smith - an Australian pilot - who he reckons is the greatest aviator ever. Just a year after Charles Lindbergh made his famous flight across the Atlantic, Kingsford Smith became the first man to cross the Pacific – a far, far tougher challenge than the Atlantic… Bryson’s description of the trip is grip-the-edge-of-your-seat exciting.

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All in all a wonderful book. I feel I really got a taste of the flavour of Australia. Bravo Bryson! I enjoyed it tons.

9.7/10 I'm going to have to read this again as there are stories in here that I want to find, the ones about the ultra-fast miniature wallaby and the gold prospector who lost his find of gold seams coming to the surface.

Well, I did read the book again and found those two stories and plenty of others. Darwin hoteliers don't come out of it too well but generally Bill Bryson is enamoured with Australia and the writing shows it.

The ultra-fast creature was actually a Desert Rat Kangaroo which outran white people on horses for 12 miles, yes 12 miles non-stop in desert heat. The consensus is that this miniature kangaroo is now extinct. If this book shows you anything, it's that vast swathes of the country are largely undiscovered and that the creature is probably inhabiting an area the size of Wales where people hardly ever go. The Desert Rat Kangaroo will be found again, though catching a specimen could be tricky as even a cheetah would struggle to keep up with it.

The prospector was Harold Bell Lasseter who claimed to have discovered a gold reef 10 miles long in the central deserts but never did rediscover it. It's possible he was overcome by the heat and imagined it, but again it wouldn't surprise me if the gold reef is there just waiting to be rediscovered and that it is 20 miles long, not just 10.

Finally, a word about Stromatolites. Stromatolites are special rock-like structures. They usually form in shallow water where cyanobacteria use water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight to create their food, and expel oxygen as a by-product. The real significance of stromatolites is that they are the earliest fossil evidence of life on Earth and almost certainly produced the oxygen that allowed all subsequent life forms to exist on the planet. We are here because of them.

3,5 stelline

Sono stata in Australia ormai più di 3 anni fa, per cui leggere questo libro è stato un vero e proprio ritorno in quel fantastico Paese.
Sotto alcuni punti di vista devo dire che mi sarebbe piaciuto leggerlo prima di partire, sotto altri, a partire da tutti gli animali schifosi che avrebbero potuto uccidermi (dato che già c’era mia madre che mi faceva l’elenco), per fortuna non l’ho fatto.
Devo dire che mi immaginavo qualcosa di diverso, di più avventuroso, con una parte più lunga ambientata nel deserto, mentre in realtà è stato tutto molto “cittadino”.
Ciononostante il libro è molto interessante, seppur ci siano troppe, ma davvero troppe interruzioni della storia per raccontare alcuni fatti e alcuni aneddoti, interessanti e spesso carini, sì, ma davvero troppi e troppo lunghi, per cui dopo un po’ annoiavano. Un paio di volte devo dire che mi sono proprio trattenuta dal saltarli e andare oltre.

Lo stile dell’autore è molto avventuroso, ma soprattutto molto divertente: non so quante volte ho avuto le lacrime agli occhi dal troppo ridere!

Just love this! I lived learning about Australia in Bill's unique style.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reread 2023 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As a favourite author of mine, I will find time to read or listen to anything this author puts into the world. But this book is up there with the greats. The authors sense of humour shines through (when even camels can't manage a desert, you know you've found a tough part of the world), and the scientific bits, I just love it.