The dissected, or jigsaw, puzzle promotes the virtues and rewards of hard work for the emigrant going to Australia in a series of five vignettes covering the voyage, arrival, building a home and taking the first wool clip to market.

Hand coloured lithographed paper laid down on wood, the puzzle paints a picture of optimism, if one of hard work, for settlers in 'the Antipodes' through the series of vignettes.

The magazine Leisure Hour produced a series of articles in 1852 which were illustrated with remarkably similar illustrations. Whether the puzzle was instrumental or not in encouraging immigration to Australia, the rosy image it paints of Australia would have been intended for children and would have supported their learning about the new English colonies across the sea, and the wealth that could be won with hard but honest toil.

South Australia

Stephens, John. The land of promise: being an authentic and impartial history of the rise and progress of the new British province of South Australia ... London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1839

Allen, James. South Australia as it is, and how to get to it: compiled for the use of intending emigrants, of all classes, to this thriving and highly prosperous colony [Facsim. ed.] Adelaide: Public Library of South Australia, 1963

Wilkinson, George Blakiston. The working man's handbook to South Australia: with advice to the farmer, and detailed information for the several classes of labourers and artizans Adelaide, S. Aust: Public Library of South Australia, 1962

State Library of South Australia, General Information Factsheets Online: Children's Literature Research Collection

Atlas of South Australia: the course of settlement

Australian wool testing authority : Search for 'A Brief History of Wool in Australia'

The Antipodes Wikipedia

State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing exhibitions. Wooden Walls and Iron Sides August 2004-

National Library of Australia: National treasures from Australia's great libraries December 2005-

State Library of Australia: Treasures of the State Library. The life of emigration