Paradise Mislaid: In Search of the Australian Tribe of Paraguay

by Anne Whitehead

This is a compelling blend of travel writing, history and personal journey in search of the legendary band of Australians who in the 1890's set sail from Sydney to found a socialist utopia in the jungles of South America. Whitehead takes the reader into present day Paraguay to meet the remaining descendants but first she lays out the cataclysmic events which overtook their colony.

631 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Anne Whitehead, author and screenwriter, was born in Sydney but spent much of her childhood in England and Papua-New Guinea. Because of a peripatetic engineer father, she was educated at eleven schools, including in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire villages, the PNG highland goldfields and coastal town of Lae, and boarding schools in Sydney and Queensland.

She is the author of Bluestocking in Patagonia and her book Paradise Mislaid was winner of the NSW Premier's Award for Australian History. She lives in Sydney.

Reviews

[John Kerr]

Winner NSW Premier's Australian History Award, judges’ citation: ‘a beautifully-crafted historical and contemporary travelogue.'

Listed for Kibble Literary Award for Women Writers, Dobbie Award for a First Published Book, and Age Book of the Year

Frank Moorhouse: ‘One of the most bizarre stories in Australian history - splendidly told by one of our master story-tellers.'

Tim Bowden, Sydney Morning Herald: ‘… totally engaging and beautifully written... a wonderful, rambunctious, passionate, picaresque narrative…’

Antipodes, US edition: ‘… has the intensity of the novel…’

Robert A Hackenberg, Transforming Anthropology, Journal of Association of Black Anthropologists US: ‘Her style strongly resembles the work of Paul Theroux and V.S. Naipaul...’

Brisbane Review: ‘... a major achievement… many ripping yarns indeed.’

Richard Hall, Australian Book Review: The descendants of the tribe are a fascinating cross-section...’

Lionel Farrell, Newcastle Herald: ‘'This is a remarkable book, a spell-binding story, masterfully told...’

Frank O'Connell, Catholic Weekly: This is a major historical work, a serious social and psychological survey and a fascinating travel book, all between two covers.'

Jenny Palmer, Community History: (SA): ‘… shows beyond a doubt that history can be far from dull and not least for being passionately felt and intimately communicated.'

The Leader: ‘… a travel adventure to rival novelist Bruce Chatwin's wanderings.'

Craig Cormick, Blast: ‘History brought alive…’

Peter Pierce, Canberra Times: ‘… a racy narrative….’

Noel Shaw, Launceston Examiner: ‘... a big book… but easy reading right to the end.'

[Re · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkably researched and full of details that make even the most mundane bits of the history come to life. Perhaps useful (but not essential) to have read Gavin Souter's "A Peculiar People" first, but Whitehead's retelling from the Sheep Shearers Strike until the 1980s of the formation, dissolution and impact of the New Australia project stands on its own.

[Zali Fung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant read! I learned a lot about a lesser known history of Australians in Paraguay

[Scarlet · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favourite new piece of trivia - but now I want to read more about the Mennonites...

[David Smallman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paradise Mislaid: In Search of the Australian Tribe of Paraguay by Anne Whitehead
On putting down “Paradise Mislaid” finally, I felt that I had made my way out of Paraguay with the author to windswept Rio Gallegos in Patagonia and over the Magellan Straits on the homeward journey to Sydney. What an adventure! Anne Whitehead made the experience of this book one that has left me with the feeling that I made the whole journey myself: I ‘saw, heard’ and learnt so much of a country and a continent of which I have no direct experience, and met so many interesting people along the way. The stories that have been woven together into “Paradise Mislaid” have created a masterpiece of history and human life. Where it appears that there are three main narratives, they have been skilfully welded into one quite amazing book.

“Paradise Mislaid” could justifiably be simply described as a detailed anthropological study. However, it is far more. It is a fascinating history, a social commentary, and a very personal journey undertaken by the author. In addition, for the uninitiated, “Paradise Mislaid” is a very valuable and descriptive travelogue.

Starting with the Shearer’s Strike of 1891 and ending with a tour de force of Paraguayan politics, with the personal stories of the descendants of a most remarkable group of men and women who sought Utopia in central South America a carefully interwoven constant, “Paradise Mislaid” is a masterpiece of painstaking research. The story covers the origins, and results, of an extraordinary cooperative venture by those dissatisfied with the capitalist economy of late nineteenth century Australia. The book meticulously documents how a band of idealistic Australians set out to found a New Australia in the jungles and plains of Paraguay. It reveals how at first the settlers considered themselves to be utterly Australian, British even, some enlisting in the British Army in the Boer War and then either in the British Army or the Australian Infantry Force in the Great War. Few returned to Australia as they lost their Australian roots and became more and more Paraguayan. David Attenborough, the naturalist, filming in Paraguay in 1958 expressed great surprise when introduced to his local guide, a descendant of the colonists, who had never been outside South America in his life yet spoke English with a broad Australian accent!

“Paradise Mislaid” is a quite amazing story of Australia and of South America and some of its peoples sensitively, yet brilliantly, told.

[Bernard Shakey · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent blend of travel and history writing to tell an important story of modern Australian history. This is a story that needs to be more widely-known to all Australians.