Ton van Kalmthout
Abstract
Dutch emigrants who moved to Australia after the Second World War were confronted with an
exceptional animal world, if only in emigration literature, including travel reports. This article discusses to which Australian animals such reports paid most attention, and how and why they did
so. On the one hand, it concerns animals the emigrants already knew from the Netherlands, albeit
found in Australia in numbers unfamiliar to them. On the other, various previously unknown
native mammals and birds are mentioned, all of which rendered it an exciting and exotic country.
It is remarkable that indigenous Aborigines were often mentioned in the same breath as the
native fauna. With their representation of people and animals, the travelogues made Australia an
attractive wonderland for emigrants.
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