Bunbury and Busselton Sketchbook by Freda Vines and Bruce Wroth

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges.Previous owner has signed inside front page, now covered with blank ex libris bookplate sticker. Interior and binding are still excellent. Dust jacket, like so many of these sketchbooks, is in fair condition with a tear at the spine top and significant wear to edges and is now enclosed in protective covering.

Bunbury and Busselton lie in an area of Australia's earliest discovery and settlement. The French explorer, Nicholas Baudin, named Geographe Bay, on which the two towns stand, in 1801. The Vasse River was named after a sailor who disappeared off his ship, and Busselton was known as The Vasse for several years.

The West Australian Company of London made grand plans for the area, but their Australind colonisation scheme collapsed, and much of the local development was inspired by the Bussell family, who settled first at Augusta and then moved to Cattle Chosen on the Vasse.

American whalers thronged the bay in the 1840s, and one pioneer bride boasted that fifteen American captains danced at her wedding.

The two towns and the surrounding districts are full of colourful stories and relics of the colonial era, and for this book, Freda Vines has chosen 29 subjects closely associated with the early days. Her text, complemented by strongly executed drawings by Bruce Wroth, presents a fascinating panorama of the period. (book flap)