Summary

This item is one of our 50 Treasures: Celebrating 50 years of James Cook University.

Associate Professor Allison Craven answers the question 'Why is this significant?'

The first significance of this early twentieth-century children's book, held in the Library's Shaw Collection, is its author: the distinguished botanical artist and natural history illustrator, Marian Ellis Rowan (1848-1922). In the story of her beloved pet bilboa, or bilby, Bill Baillie, there is also a fictionalized journal of some of her travels during the 18 months of his life across 1906 to 1907. As few letters and no diaries remain of Ellis Rowan, the book is a rare insight into her world and expeditions.

Bill Baillie was gifted to Ellis Rowan while she was painting wildflowers in Western Australia. He was born to her from the pocket of 'Goongarrie Tom', a miner who rescued the bilby joey after its mother died in a rabbit trap. Ellis hand-raised Bill Baillie, feeding him from a quill and adapting a basket for his home and transport. His name, 'Bill Baillie', was chosen as an echo of 'bilboa' or 'bilby'. The book tells of his life from these early events and is fictionalized through the character of 'Tabitha', his handler, who reveals a side of Ellis Rowan.

At 12 weeks old he travels by train and wagon with Tabitha into the deep country known as 'No Man's Land' where she paints. Lyrical descriptions of the landscape and flora are narrated alongside yarns of Mandy, the cook, and the lonely bushmen and miners who gravitate to talk with Tabitha and patronize Bill Baillie with gifts at their remote accommodations. After a tour of the South Perth Zoo to meet his fellow bilboas, they make the journey back to Victoria by steamship in the era before the railway extended to Western Australia. In his wider travels, Bill Baillie ventures to Macedon, Adelaide and Broken Hill before his sad passing.

The book was republished in a school edition in 1948 and was therefore known to many children. Its further distinction is the exhibition of images of Ellis Rowan's exquisite art in the colour plates of wildflowers and landscapes from the regions of their travels. Ellis Rowan's loving memoir of Bill Baillie is a lasting tribute to the instincts and adaptiveness of the gentle burrowing bilby. While bilbies feature in many Australian children's stories, the species is sadly endangered today. Like the many flowers, butterflies and insects that she painted, Bill Baillie: His Life and Adventures is a vivid testament to Ellis Rowan's wondrous passion for the Australian natural environment.