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While Charles Dickens never visited Australia, he was very interested in the land ‘down under’. As the Editor-in-Chief and the ‘Conductor’ he was instrumental in publishing numerous articles about Australia in his weekly periodical, Household Words. These letters are collected in the five volumes ofÌýCharles Dickens’ Australia: selected essays fromÌýHousehold WordsÌý1850–1859, compiled and edited by Margaret Mendelawitz.

The publication ofÌýHousehold WordsÌýcoincided with a decade of great changes in Australia. The gold rushes of the 1850s drove a period of mass migration and expansion in the hinterlands, and caused radical economic and social changes. It also changed how the colonies were perceived by Britain and the world at large. Away from its stark convict beginnings, Australia became the ultimate land of adventure and opportunity with an exciting future ahead. Many articles fromÌýHousehold WordsÌýwere re-published in the Australian press of the time, providing Dickens, a keen advocate for social improvement, with a unique opportunity to shape public opinion in Australia.

Dickens publishedÌýHousehold WordsÌýand his later magazine,ÌýAll the Year Round, with the aim of reaching and entertaining the masses and, at the same time, shaping discussion and debate on important social questions of the time. Filled with serialised novels, poems, articles of investigative journalism, travel writing, popular science, history and political commentary, both journals became extremely popular at the time (Household WordsÌýeventually averaged sales of about 40,000 copies per week and at its peak 100,000 copies per week).

Charles Dickens’ AustraliaÌýmakes the stories related to Australia, describingÌý convicts, migrants, miners, explorers, bushrangers and sailors, accessible to contemporary readers. Readers interested in delving further intoÌýHousehold WordsÌýcan explore a digitised collection of the complete journal at .

Dickens evenÌýÌýto Australia and write a book. Alas, it never happened, despite the fact that two of his sons migrated here:ÌýÌýcame in 1865 and his younger brother,Ìý, in 1869. They both worked on stations before opening their own stock and station agency, EBL Dickens and Partners.ÌýÌýof their time, they were largely forgotten until Mary Lazarus published her bookÌý, in 1973.

References to Australia appear in many of Dickens’ most famous works, such asÌýGreat ExpectationsÌýandÌýDavid Copperfield. You can read more aboutÌýthese connectionsÌýin this fascinating blog post by .

This is an edited version of a post that appeared onÌýthe previous SUP blog in 2011.ÌýÌý