Robert Emeric Tyler

In 1985, Robert Emeric Tyler, a leading London architect, and his nineteen-year-old son Bobby travelled by rail and sea to Australia with a view to purchasing a goldmine. Their adventures, misadventures and incredible naivety as they journeyed in remote parts of the Western Australian goldfields were recorded faithfully in letters to ‘My Dear Emma’, Robert’s wife in England. Part travelogue, part social history, My Dear Emma is a remarkable personal eye-witness account of an Australia of one hundred years ago — of places, people and events from Coolgardie to Cue, Albany to Perth. The letters also provide fascinating insight into the world and attitudes of the late nineteenth century gentleman traveller, coming to Australia via Italy, Suez and Colombo.

Books available from Fremantle Press

• My Dear Emma 2003