Australia’s first published …

Book, 1802

Binding Bureaucracy

This was the first book published in Australia. It was not a best-seller: the subject matter is less than riveting and there are no illustrations. A compilation of Government orders issued in the Colony, it was published by George Howe just fourteen years after the convict colony was established at Sydney Cove. The contents were, of course, approved by the Governor. Howe was a convict and a printer by trade, who had arrived in November 1800. The written word was from the beginning important and a small wooden printing press had been brought out with the First Fleet in 1788.

The orders cover diverse topics ranging from the ‘punishment of restless and turbulent characters’ to the granting of emancipations and pardons. The Mitchell Library holds two of the only three surviving copies of this book; the other copy is held in the British Library. This copy appears to have been the preliminary issue, owned by Howe himself, and it has been marked up with corrections, which were incorporated in the final printing.
Display item Australia’s first published …

 

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