Theophilus Jones: Tasmania Through Anglo-Indian Eyes in the 1880s and 1890s

How to foster immigration and tourism was vigorously debated in Tasmania during the 1880s. One debater was Theophilus Jones, a British-born, former Bombay harbour pilot who had left India for Tasmania in the hope of ‘bettering himself’. From 1883 to 1885 wrote a 97-part series of colonial sketches under the banner ‘Through Tasmania’. Jones’ insights into Tasmania still resonate today. These and his colourful adventures on the road, however, hid a desperate struggle to provide for his large family.