Aurora Australis : or Specimens of sacred poetry, for the colonists of Australia.

Sydney : printed by G. Eagar, 1826. Octavo, modern half morocco over cloth, spine in compartments with raised bands, contrasting title labels lettered in gilt; pp. x, [2 contents], 166, printed notice on The Australian Magazine; some staining and spotting. Ferguson, 920.

‘The earliest [Australian] volume of literature that a collector can realistically aim for’ (Wantrup).

Rev. John Dunmore Lang (1799-1878), clergyman, educationalist, and politician, was educated at the University of Glasgow where he graduated Master of Arts in 1820. In the same year, he was licenced to preach as a Presbyterian minister. Lang emigrated from Scotland to New South Wales at the end of 1822, arriving in Sydney May 1823, where he was warmly welcomed by the local Presbyterian community as their first minister. He saw the construction of a church as a priority, and to this end sought government financial assistance to bolster funds raised by private subscription. Despite existing government support for Sydney’s Catholic and Anglican communities, Governor Brisbane flatly refused Lang’s petition, and Lang’s subsequent outspoken criticism of this perceived inequity resulted in his alienation from the authorities and loss of favour with certain influential figures in Sydney society. The building of Scots Church was, however, able to be undertaken through private donations. The foundation stone was laid in July 1824, and the church was opened on 16 July 1826. Completed at a cost of £3000, the Norman-Gothic style building could seat a congregation of 900. Lang would remain the minister of Scots Church until his death in 1878.

This small book is one of the first literary works published in colonial Sydney, and as noted by Wantrup, the earliest a collector can realistically aim for. It includes verses regarding the long voyage to Australia, translations of two Aboriginal songs, a sonnet on bushfires, and an effort at an ‘Australian anthem’. Lang would publish a number of subsequent essays and literary pieces during his lifetime as a clergyman in Sydney. The work was reprinted in 1873.

The last copy we have located at auction was sold 40 years ago (Kenneth Hince Auctions, Melbourne, 20 May 1985).

Ferguson, 1085; Wantrup (2023), 485.