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Charles Whitham was an Australian writer. He wrote the oft-reprinted Western Tasmania: A land of Riches and Beauty, which was a comprehensive study of the geographical features of West Coast, Tasmania and the conditions of the region in the 1920s.

Early life

Charles Whitham was born in India in 1873. He and his parents travelled to Tasmania in 1886.

His first book was published in 1917.

Western Tasmania

The book was originally published in 1924 and reprinted in 1949 and in 1984. Extracts from the book were reproduced in The Mercury in the 1930s. The book is a mix of geographical and historical information about the west coast, and includes sections on Macquarie Harbour and the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company.

Whitham had personally travelled to many of the locations and features that he described as well as to most of the peaks of the West Coast Range. His photographs in the State Library of Tasmania attest to some of the places that he had visited.

It was not until the writing of Geoffrey Blainey's The Peaks of Lyell in the 1950s that the history and geography of the west coast of Tasmania was thoroughly reviewed and showed the important contribution of Whitham's earlier work.

A collection of articles by Whitham was collected by Kleinig in the 2000s.

Later life and death

Whitham moved to Sydney in the 1920s, and died there in December 1940.

Notes

1. Whitham, Charles; Mount Lyell Tourist Association (1917), The book of Mount Lyell and the Gordon: a land of riches and beauty, Mount Lyell Tourist Association, retrieved 20 June 2015
2. Whitham, Charles; Mount Lyell Tourist Association (1924), Western Tasmania: a land of riches and beauty, Mount Lyell Tourist Association, retrieved 20 June 2015
3. Whitham, Charles; Robert Sticht Memorial Library. Board of Management (1949), Western Tasmania: a land of riches and beauty, Board of Management, Robert Sticht Memorial Library, retrieved 20 June 2015
4. Whitham, Charles (1984), Western Tasmania: a land of riches and beauty, Municipality of Queenstown, retrieved 20 June 2015
5. "WEST COAST NEWS". The Mercury. Vol. CXXXIX, no. 20,615. Tasmania, Australia. 2 September 1933. p. 12. Retrieved 23 April 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
6. Whitham, Charles; Kleinig, Simon (2010), Rambles in Western Tasmania: articles by Charles Whitham, 1912 to 1924, Tasmanian Historical Research Association, ISBN 978-0-909479-25-1
7. Felton, Ken (2011), "Rambles in Western Tasmania: Articles by Charles Whitham 1912-1924 ", Papers and Proceedings: Tasmanian Historical Research Association, 58 (3): 236–237, ISSN 0039-9809
8. The Author p.iv of the 1949 and 1984 editions of Western Tasmania
9. "OBITUARY Mr. Charles Whitham". The Mercury. Vol. CLII, no. 21, 862. Tasmania. 21 December 1940. p. 4. Retrieved 24 November 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
10. "OBITUARY". The Advocate (Australia). Tasmania, Australia. 19 December 1940. p. 8. Retrieved 24 September 2022 – via National Library of Australia.

External links

• Charles Whitham photographs - online at State Library of Tasmania

• History of Tasmania
• Western Tasmania