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Astley, William (1855 - 1911)

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    Tales of the Early Days
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    Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island)
    Details

Born
13 August 1855
Liverpool, England
Died
5 October 1911
Rockwood, New South Wales, Australia
Alternative Names
  • Price Warung (pseudonym)

Summary

Astley was born in Liverpool, his family emigrating to Melbourne in 1859. He worked as a journalist, travelling around the south-east of Australia and finally settling in Sydney in 1891 with his wife Louisa, after having worked for many years on a wide range of provincial newspapers. His reputation as a radical pro-Federation, pro-Labor journalist grew in the 1890s, which is when he also began to publish convict stories in the Bulletin - sustained and often heavily satirical critiques of the colonial administrative system. The Bulletin published some of these stories separately, as Tales of the Convict System (1892) and Tales of the Early Days (1892). Later, George Robertson published Tales of the Old Regime (1897) and Half-Crown Bob and Tales of the Riverine (1898), as well as the novel, Convict Hendy (1898). His health and finances failing during the later 1890s, Astley became addicted to morphia and increasingly reclusive. He died in the Rookwood Benevolent Asylum.

Published resources

Books

  • Warung, Price, Tales of the Early Days, George Robertson and Co., London, 1894, 293 pp. Details
  • Warung, Price, Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, 272 pp. Details

Short Stories

  • Warung, Price, 'Captain Maconochie's "Bounty for Crime"', in Tales of the Early Days, George Robertson and Co., London, 1894, pp. 1-20. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'Secret Society of the Ring', in Tales of the Early Days, George Robertson and Co., London, 1894, pp. 32-125. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'In the Granary', in Tales of the Early Days, George Robertson and Co., London, 1894, pp. 126-154. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'Parson Ford's Confessional', in Tales of the Early Days, George Robertson and Co., London, 1894, pp. 155-179. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Heart-Breaking of Anstey's Bess', in Tales of the Early Days, George Robertson and Co., London, 1894, pp. 180-202. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Amour of Constable Crake', in Tales of the Early Days, George Robertson and Co., London, 1894, pp. 203-220. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Pegging-Out of Oversee Franke', in Tales of the Early Days, George Robertson and Co., London, 1894, pp. 221-247. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'At Burford's Panorama', in Tales of the Early Days, George Robertson and Co., London, 1894, pp. 273-293. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Revolt of Company B (II)', in Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, pp. 43-61. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Revolt of Company B (I)', in Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, pp. 27-42. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Findling of Benson, Baronet', in Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, pp. 255-272. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Flogging of Fergie', in Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, pp. 62-80. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'Toulmin of Toulmin', in Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, pp. 81-109. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Annihilation of Austin', in Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, pp. 110-126. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Spread-Eagling of Convict Cunliffe', in Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, pp. 127-139. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Consequences of Cunliffe's Crime', in Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, pp. 140-167. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Initiation of "Pine-Tree Jack" : A Story of "The Ring"', in Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, pp. 168-190. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'Mrs. Taylor's "Letter Day"', in Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, pp. 191-206. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Evolution of Convict Hendy', in Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, pp. 207-227. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Whale-Boat Plot', in Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, pp. 228-254. Details
  • Warung, Price, 'The Fluctuations of Fergie', in Tales of the isle of death (Norfolk Island), George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, 1898, pp. 1-26. Details

See also

Archival resources

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

  • Tales [19--] [manuscript] - Price Warung, NLA MS 177; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Rachael Weaver