author
William Harvey Christie
1808–1873
Born in Ceylon and educated in England, he built a varied life as a British army officer, colonial public servant, politician, and novelist. His story connects military service, early New South Wales politics, and a little-remembered career in fiction.
1 Audiobook
A Love Story
by William Harvey Christie
About the author
After serving in the British Army, he came to New South Wales in the 1830s and moved into public life. He held several colonial posts, including serjeant-at-arms of the Legislative Council and later postmaster-general, and he also sat in the Legislative Council during the 1850s.
Beyond government service, he had a quieter literary side. He is credited with the novel A Love Story, published under the name "A Bushman," which gives him a place not only in colonial administration but also in nineteenth-century literature.
He died in 1873. Although he is more often remembered in Australian historical records than in literary histories, his career shows how often soldiers, officials, and writers overlapped in the colonial world.