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the complete review - travel

Australian Landfall

by
Egon Erwin Kisch

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B : interesting foreigner-take on Australia, not least in his disturbing/amusing troubles with the authorities

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "Mr E. E. Kisch's Landung in Australien has appeared in an excellent English version under the Left Wing of Messrs Seeker & Warburg, London; and not bad reading it makes either, although it is the hasty work of a freelance journalist who cannot forget his reputation in pre-Hitler Germany of "Rasanda Rapporta" or Rampaging Reporter. (...) (A)s a prose-writer he is a literary Mrs Harris." - A. H. Charteris, The Australian Quarterly

  Quotes:

• "Nevertheless, despite the inescapable tarnish that the passing of time has laid on Australian Landfall, it is a book that should not have been neglected or allowed to go out of print. Nor should Kisch's responses to an Australia which our world still resembles have been confined to memories of the White Australia Policy and of Menzies's near-paranoia whenever he was confronted by the ogre of "foreign" socialism and communism. Kisch's account of his visit to Australia is still read, discussed and respected in Europe, because the book represents an aspect of a remarkable literary and journalistic achievement. (...) Australian Landfall reveals brilliant use of a literary device that symbolizes Kisch's characteristic irony and detachment, the ability of a truly displaced person to observe even his own misfortunes with cool scepticism. The book is written in the third person. Instead of a whining complaint, as it could have become in the hands of a lesser writer, the story of Kisch's Australian adventures is black comedy where the farcical is as significant as the portentous." - Andrew Riemer, Australian Quarterly ((70:1) 1-2/1998)

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

[Note: this review is based on the German original; I have not seen the English translation, and all translations are my own.]

       In the fall of 1934 Henri Barbusse reached out to Egon Erwin Kisch to ask him, very much at the last minute, if he could travel to Australia as a delegate of the World Committee Against War and Fascism to attend a Movement against War and Fascism-congress in Melbourne. With only a few days to get organized -- book a ticket, get a visa, get to Marseilles to reach the ship in time -- it's all a big rush, but Kisch managed and was on board the Strathaird when it set off. It was mostly smooth sailing -- until they got to Australia, where the authorities took his passport and insisted that he remain on board, refusing him entry; as an anti-fascist he was apparently a suspect character (the authorities having apparently been warned and egged on by the local German representatives, as Kisch was highly critical of the Nazi regime back in Europe). The Strathaird, and the case, puttered on -- Kisch nicely complicating matters by jumping (off the) ship in Melbourne, managing to break his leg but also having effected entry onto Australian land, which changed his status somewhat -- though not immediately, as they merely shoved him back on board again straight away and sailed on to Sydney.
       Kisch was infamously subject to a 'dictation test', as the Australian Immigration Restriction Act had a ridiculous provision whereby individuals had to write out fifty words in dictation in some European language -- of the authority's choosing -- and if they failed they could be deported. Kisch was 'tested' in Scottish Gaelic (a nearly concurrent case Kisch also recounts, that of Gerald Griffin, had the dictation in Dutch) -- though the authorities probably went overboard in trying to stymie him: as Kisch notes in both his description of the 'test' and then account of the court proceedings, it seems Constable MacKay who read out the dictation didn't know the language himself and was pretty much just making things up as he went along. (For good measure, the court ruled that Scottish Gaelic is not a European language within the meaning of the Immigration Restriction Act.) Still, the government did not abandon its efforts to make their case -- but, out on bail between various court proceedings, Kisch managed to travel about and speak widely in Australia during his time there (he only finally left in March, 1935).
       The long first part of Australian Landfall describes Kisch's adventures in Australia, a travel- (and court-) diary of sorts. Referring to himself as 'our man' in the account, Kisch moves back and forth between reporting on what happened -- his journalistic instincts coming through -- and a more personal account; he keeps some nominal distance by using the third person in chronicling what happened, but his experiences are related entirely and obviously from his perspective here.
       The remainder of the volume consists of what amounts to more or less 'impressions of Australia'-pieces, each focusing on some specific aspect. For example, he's in Australia for Anniversary Day (now Australia Day), celebrated 26 January, and in 'The Ancestors' he amusingly explores what anniversary is actually being celebrated, as he gets a variety of answers from the locals before hitting on the actual one, which lets him delve into the history and legacy of the 'First Fleet'. (26 January 1788 is when the Fleet -- the first batch of ships that established the penal colony in Australia -- landed.)
       Other pieces consider the problem of sharks; lamb and sheep in Australia; and cricket -- also as the sport that helped foster the connection between distant Australia and the other Commonwealth nations. Several pieces focus on politics and labor, including one on 'The Continent of Unions' and one that takes as a starting point Lenin's 1913 piece, In Australia, in which Lenin comments on the election-success of the local Labour party and wonders: "What sort of peculiar capitalist country is this, in which the workers' representatives, predominate in the Upper house and, till recently, did so in the Lower House as well, and yet the capitalist system is in no danger ?" (Part of the explanation, as Lenin notes: "The Australian Labour Party does not even call itself a socialist party. Actually it is a liberal-bourgeois party".) In another, Kisch writes about coal-mining -- including with some on-site color (complicated by Kisch's broken leg, which made it difficult for him to actually go down into the mine).
       While judiciously avoiding admitting his own Communist sympathies -- he was a party member -- Kisch was obviously very interested in workers' rights, both speaking about them and reporting on the Australian labor movement of the time.
       Kisch's legal difficulties -- and the politics behind them -- give interesting insight into the Australian political situation of the day, and the contortions the government was willing to go through to rid themselves of 'undesirable aliens' (undesirable for political reasons, here, but obviously extending to other (mainly racial) categories as well) feels all-too relevant even now, nearly a century later, as governments -- in Australia, Europe, and especially the United States -- define and try to block 'undesirables' in often similarly arbitrary (and often harebrained) ways. (Just how close and prominent Nazi elements are found here -- right down to when Kisch ships out --, and how accepted they are, is also disturbing, and also sadly similar to much in the present-day world.)
       Australian Landfall is of interest for the picture it gives of 1930s Australia, especially politically and regarding the labor unrest of the time, but also offers more suspense than the usual travel account in following Kisch's complicated legal troubles and how the authorities are repeatedly made to look like fools (more accurately: like the fools they often truly were). The near-parallel case of Gerald Griffin also adds some nice color.

- M.A.Orthofer, 12 July 2026

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Links:

• Australian Landfall at Museums Victoria

• See Index of Travel-related books
• See Index of Books Written Between 1900 and 1945

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About the Author:

       German-writing author and journalist Egon Erwin Kisch lived 1885 to 1948.

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© 2026 the complete review

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