[FIRST AND ONLY SEPARATE TRAVEL ACCOUNT OF AUSTRALIA BY A TURKISH TRAVELLER] Avusturalya seyahati. [i.e. Voyage to Australia]. Preface by Tahsin Demiray.

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MIRALAY AHMET BEY ZADE MEHMET OSMAN, (1878-1940?)., Mektep Nesriyat Yurdu / Türkiye Matbaasi, Ist., 1932.

Original wrappers. Cr. 8vo. (20 x 14 cm). In Turkish with Latin letters. 64 p., 1 portrait, 2 unnumbered b/w plates. Extremely rare. Only two copies in OCLC: 949418134 (Bogaziçi University Library & National Library of Australia).

First and Only Edition of this rare and early first and only separate travel account by a Turkish traveler in Turkish literature to Australia.

Mehmet Osman Bey, (1878-1940?), was a son of Miralay Ahmed Bey, and the grandson of Emin Pasha who was the head doctor of Sultan Murat V. Mehmet Osman Bey, who circumnavigated the world in 1910, continued his journey through India, Sumatra, Java, Malaga, the Archipelago, Japan, and China until the fourth month of the World War I. When he arrived in Australia, he wrote his travel notes and was taken as a civilian prisoner by the British Army in Australia and he was sent to India, and from there to Egypt. According to Demiray's preface, he was blind after returning to Turkey. This book includes two plates showing farmhouses in Australia. He described in his book Australia's educational, farming, medical systems as well as the topography of the land, the customs and rituals of the natives, their traditions of hunting, and the largely indigenous population in Queensland and the native camps outside Sydney. One of the purposes of publishing this book in the early Republican Turkey period is to examine the welfare level and systems in other countries in accordance with the conjuncture of the period.

Only two copies in OCLC: 949418134 (Bogaziçi University Library & National Library of Australia).