author
Thorvald Peter Ludwig Weitemeyer
b. 1850
A Danish emigrant who turned his years in colonial Queensland into a lively firsthand adventure story. His writing offers a practical, personal view of migration, settlement, and survival in 19th-century Australia.
1 Audiobook
Missing Friends Being the Adventures of a Danish Emigrant in Queensland (1871-1880)
by Thorvald Peter Ludwig Weitemeyer
About the author
Born in Copenhagen in 1850, Thorvald Peter Ludwig Weitemeyer trained as a builder before leaving Denmark for Queensland. AustLit records that he arrived in Bowen on 1 August 1872 aboard the Humboldt, and later made a life in the colony as a settler.
He is best known for Missing Friends: Being the Adventures of a Danish Emigrant in Queensland (1871-1880), a memoir-like narrative based on his own experiences. The book stands out for its direct, ground-level picture of immigrant life, travel, hard work, and adjustment in Australia during the late 19th century.
Local history sources also remember him as an early settler in the Montville area on Queensland's Blackall Range, where he selected land in 1887 and is described as the first settler there with his family. He died in 1919, leaving behind a rare personal account of Danish migration to colonial Australia.