Pursuit of Wonder, The: How Australia’s Landscape was Explored, Nature Discovered, and Tourism Unleashed

Imagine an Australia before the tour buses and well-trodden bushwalks – a wild and often daunting country that did not easily yield the secrets of its natural beauty. Into this landscape, early Europeans ventured, ‘discovering’ nature at its most Romantic – sublime lakes, ancient mountain ranges, awe-inspiring caves and plunging waterfalls. Scenery that is now a familiar part of the Australian landscape – the Blue Mountains and the Jenolan Caves in New South Wales, Lake St Clair in Tasmania and Wilsons Promontory in Victoria, Mount Tamborine in Queensland and Mount Lofty in South Australia – stirred in these visitors a sense of awe. Richly illustrated, “”The Pursuit of Wonder”” is a celebration of travel in its many rambling, striving, inspiring guises and a revelation of a natural world that we now take for granted. Rediscover the wonder.