John Muir in Australia

John Muir visited Australia as part of his 1903-1904 world tour.

John Muir visited zoological and botanical gardens and parks in Fremantle, Melbourne, and Sydney. He traveled inland to see the eucalyptus forests of the Great Dividing Range and took the train from Sydney to Mt. Victoria in the Blue Mountains to see the Jenolan Caves. He went to Queensland to see the Hoop Pine and saw the Great Barrier Reef from his ship.

The Narbethong Special Purposes Reserve preserves some of the beech trees, eucalyptus, and tree ferns that Muir saw on his trip.

Muir's journals of his Australia trip have never been published, but can be found, together with letters he wrote from Australia to family and friends, in the John Muir Papers, Microform edition, at the Holt-Atherton Library, University of the Pacific.

The best source for information about Muir's Australian travels is the article "John Muir's Travels in Australasia, 1903-1904: Their Significance for Conservation and Environmental Thought" by C. Michael Hall, in John Muir: Life and Work edited by Sally M. Miller (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993). C. Michael Hall is with the Department of Tourism and Communication, University of Canberra, Australia.

See also "John Muir and Tall Trees of Australia" by P.J. Ryan: in John Muir: Life and Legacy, the Pacific Historian, Vol. 29, No. 2 & 3 (Summer/Fall 1985) (PDF available from University of Oregon)

Places Important to John Muir

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