author
Frank Lascelles Jardine
1841–1919
A tough, controversial figure of colonial Australia, he is best remembered for helping record the long overland expedition to Cape York in the 1860s. His writing captures a harsh frontier world of exploration, travel, and settlement in Far North Queensland.
1 Audiobook
Narrative of the Overland Expedition of the Messrs. Jardine from Rockhampton to Cape York, Northern Queensland
by Frank Lascelles Jardine, Alexander Jardine
About the author
Born in Scotland on August 28, 1841, and raised in a family deeply involved in colonial administration, Frank Lascelles Jardine became known in Australia as a pastoralist, public official, and frontier pioneer. He is most closely associated with Cape York Peninsula and Somerset in far north Queensland, where he and his family played a major role in early European settlement.
As an author, he is linked above all with Narrative of the Overland Expedition of the Messrs. Jardine from Rockhampton to Cape York, Northern Queensland, the account of the difficult 1864–65 cattle drive he made with his brother Alexander. The book remains a notable firsthand record of travel and colonial expansion in northern Australia.
Jardine died on March 19, 1919. Modern accounts remember him both as an explorer and as a deeply contested colonial figure, reflecting the violence and dispossession tied to settlement in the region.