Walk to the West was a book published to celebrate both the sesquicentenary (150 years) of the Royal Society of Tasmania in 1993, and the event from which the book is made – the Walk to the West Coast of Tasmania by James Backhouse Walker, Arthur Leslie Giblin, Charles Percy Sprent, William Piguenit, Robert Mackenzie Johnston, William Vincent Legge, George Samuel Perrin, and Henry Vincent Bayly in 1887 from Hobart to the West Coast of Tasmania.
Paintings
It is interspersed with plates from Piguenit's paintings made in the earlier stages of the journey.
Locations included in the paintings:-
- Lake Pedder
- Frenchman's Cap
- Mount King William
- Lake St Clair
- Mount Rufus
- Mount Gell
- King William Range
- Mount Ida
- Mount Heemskirk
- Mount Olympus
Diary
The diary (unpublished) by Walker is transcribed for the book, and meticulous annotation explains the Tasmanian conditions and environment.
It identifies characters involved in the exploration and place naming in the West Coast of Tasmania in its Lexicon of relevant place names.
Itinerary
The days and locations included:-
- 17 February 1887 - Hobart to New Norfolk by train, then to Ouse by coach
- 5 March 1887 - Formby (Devonport) by coach to Launceston, then by train to Hobart.
It also contains a foldout map that was current of the West Coast in 1888 - when the party was travelling.
It mentions the name of the significant track cutters and explorers of the era.
Notes
- Piguenit, W. C. (William Charles); Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. Meeting Hobart, Tas.) (1892) (1892), Among the western highlands of Tasmania, s.n.>, retrieved 31 December 2014
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) see also Piguenit, W. C. (William Charles) (1871), Diary, retrieved 31 December 2014
References
- Stoddart, D. Michael, ed. (1993). Walk to the West. Hobart: The Royal Society of Tasmania. ISBN 0-9598679-9-6.
Further reading
- Binks, C.J. (1988). Pioneers of Tasmania's West Coast. Hobart: Blubber Head Press. ISBN 0908528167.
- Webberley, Helen. Tasmanian Geographic Vol 11, 2014. Archived from the original on 3 April 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2017.