Travel Stories
Overseas travel was well beyond the means of many Australians in the first forty years of the 20th century. The only technology for inter-continental travel was by ship for most of that time. And even when commercial air passenger services were developed, they were ludicrously expensive. Sailing remained by far the most popular form of transport.
Mary Grant Bruce gave information, and some humour, about her own travels when she was fortunate enough to have them.
We have found ten short travel stories:
‘A Riviera afternoon’, Woman’s World, March 1930
‘A Riviera morn’, Woman’s World, February 1930
‘Brittany Holiday’
‘Èze’
‘Isis on the rocks in the Riviera hinterland‘, The Argus, 1929
‘London as it is’, The Register (Adelaide), 24 March 1917
‘London after two years’, The Leader, 1917
‘Rickshaw “boys” of Durban’, The Leader, 2 January 1915
‘Vagabonds abroad’
‘Ships I have known’, Blackwood’s Magazine, November 1939. We could almost have placed this story in the autobiographical section. It starts with Mary’s love of naval stories from age eight, and then it reveals:
“My first real ships were the little steamers plying on the Gippsland Lakes. The delight of those voyages is with me yet.”
Mary Grant Bruce’s short stories are under copyright owned by the Trustee of The Mary Grant Bruce Family Trust.