Australian Wonderland : A Fairy Chain

London: Ward, Lock and Co.. Good+ with no dust jacket. 1899. First Edition. Hardcover. Free endpapers have been cut out at front and rear. Previous owner's name. Some fingermarks to pages. Some staining to boards. Some wear to cloth at corners of boards. ; Uncommon. 75, [1] pages + 4 pages advertisements. Frontispiece and 6 full page black and white illustrations within the pagination. Smaller in-text illustrations. Grey-green cloth boards with dark green lettering on spine and front board, red-brown illustration of boy riding an emu on front board. Page dimensions: 244 x 180mm. Unusual illustrations include a ladder made of crocodiles, a platypus planting plimroses, Charlie riding a kangaroo, a fairy surrounded by Australian animals. [Reference: Muir 383 "A fantasy of a boy's adventures in the bush." McKay & Buckridge (2007), "By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland", page 431 "One of the earliest fantasy novels for children, 'Australian Wonderland' (1899) by 'A.A.B. and Helumac', begins in Victoria, Charlie the hero's home. But swiftly, via the 'Queensland-Crocodile-Express-Mail-Train' - a line of crocodiles fastened jaw to tail - Charlie is transported north to undergo a series of Lewis Carroll-inspired adventures with talking animals and maths puzzles."] .