Walk to the West

Walk to the West was a book published to celebrate both the sesquicentenary (150 years) of the Royal Society of Tasmania in 1993, and the event from which the book is made – the Walk to the West Coast of Tasmania by James Backhouse Walker, Arthur Leslie Giblin, Charles Percy Sprent, William Piguenit, Robert Mackenzie Johnston, William Vincent Legge, George Samuel Perrin, and Henry Vincent Bayly in 1887 from Hobart to the West Coast of Tasmania.

It is interspersed with plates from Piguenit's paintings made in the earlier stages of the journey.^[1]

Locations included in the paintings:-

• Lake Pedder
• Frenchman's Cap
• Mount King William
• Lake St Clair
• Mount Rufus
• Mount Gell
• King William Range
• Mount Ida
• Mount Heemskirk
• Mount Olympus

The diary (unpublished) by Walker is transcribed for the book, and meticulous annotation explains the Tasmanian conditions and environment.

It identifies characters involved in the exploration and place naming in the West Coast of Tasmania in its Lexicon of relevant place names.

The days and locations included:-

• 17 February 1887 - Hobart to New Norfolk by train, then to Ouse by coach
• 5 March 1887 - Formby (Devonport) by coach to Launceston, then by train to Hobart.

It also contains a foldout map that was current of the West Coast in 1888 - when the party was travelling.

It mentions the name of the significant track cutters and explorers of the era.

• Stoddart, D. Michael, ed. (1993). Walk to the West. Hobart: The Royal Society of Tasmania. ISBN 0-9598679-9-6.

• Binks, C.J. (1988). Pioneers of Tasmania's West Coast. Hobart: Blubber Head Press. ISBN 0908528167.
• Webberley, Helen. Tasmanian Geographic Vol 11, 2014. Archived from the original on 3 April 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2017.