In 1922 Agatha Christie’s second book, The Secret Adversary was published with the following dedication:

‘To all those who lead monotonous lives in the hope that they experience at second hand the delights and dangers of adventure‘¹.

A day after the book came out, Agatha departed on an adventure of her own, one that would take her to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Canada, in a nearly year-long ‘Grand Tour’². Agatha’s husband Archie had been appointed financial adviser to the the British Empire Mission, a somewhat odd bunch of representatives whose job it was to travel to the colonies on a public relations tour to promote the upcoming 1924 British Empire Exhibition. It was the opportunity of a lifetime for Agatha, who as Archie’s wife, would have all of her travel expenses paid.

The Times, 19 January 1922, p 5

The tour didn’t start off well for Agatha, who suffered from a such a severe bout of sea sickness that she seriously considered getting off the ship when it made its first port in Madeira and turning around and going back to England³. ‘I was laid low, and nearly dead!’⁴, she wrote in a letter to her mother.

The ship that Agatha and her husband arrived on into Australia.
Aeneas, between 1900-1954? Photo by Allan C. Green, H91.250/1582

Agatha persevered, and after some weeks travelling around South Africa, where she learned to surf for the first time, the party arrived in Adelaide on the 29^th April 1922, on board the T.S.S. Aeneas. Agatha and her husband immediately took the train to Melbourne, arriving on Labour Day.

Passenger arrival list for T.S.S Aeneas featuring ‘Mrs A Christie’. State Records of South Australia via FamilySearch.

Recounting their arrival in Melbourne, Agatha wrote:

‘My own sketchy ideas of Australia comprised kangaroos in large quantities, and a great deal of waste desert. What startled me principally, as we came into Melbourne, was the extraordinary aspect of the trees, and the difference Australian gum trees make to a landscape.’⁵

Her base in Melbourne was the Menzies Hotel, one of the city’s grandest and finest establishments, situated on the corner of Bourke and William Streets, but sadly no longer standing today. When the hotel was refurbished in 1897, it advertised luxurious features such as a ‘Moorish Hall’, a winter garden festooned with Indian rugs, and a music room decorated with nymphs (Sportsman, 6 April 1897)- exactly the sort of establishment that the fastidious Hercule Poirot would have approved of!

Menzies Hotel, Melbourne, Vic [ca 1935], Rose Stereograph Co., H96.200/380.

There was little time for Agatha to sit back and enjoy the city. The delegates of the British Empire Mission had a full schedule of events, including luncheons at Parliament House, sports days, and a visit to MacRobertson’s chocolate factory. Agatha enjoyed the tour of the chocolate factory, but wrote in her diary that she was disappointed to leave without some complimentary chocolate!⁶.

Confectionery packaging line – MacRobertson Chocolate factory, 1910/1940, H2003.101/52

Further afield they visited sites of farming and manufacturing, industries whose goods could be exported throughout the British Empire. They spent a full day in Shepparton visiting the Cannery, the orchards of the Closer Settlements, and the Freezing Works, before attending a banquet at the Victoria Hotel (Shepparton Advertiser, 25 May 1922). On other days, they visited a site for basket-making in Ringwood, a brick factory in Dandenong, and a wool and pottery works in Castlemaine⁷.

The Victoria Hotel, Shepparton, Vic [1920-1954], Rose Stereograph Co., H32492/8976

A particular highlight for Agatha was a visit to Noojee, and a ride on the ‘bush tram’. Of the experience, she wrote:

‘It was lovely all through the bush, very dense undergrowth, and the great tall tree trunks. The engine flung out showers of sparks, but a kindly stoker was on duty to extinguish me if I was smouldering in more than two places at once! We got out at the Goodwood Saw mills, right in the heart of the forest. I shall never forget it’⁸.

Goodwood Timber Company, Noojee Victoria, 1936, J.L. Buckland. National Library of Australia. P861/677.

Agatha’s final stop in Victoria before travelling to New South Wales and Queensland, was the small border town of Echuca, of which Agatha was less than complementary. In her diary she described their late night arrival to their ‘evil smelling‘ hotel, where they were met by a ‘drunken ruffian (who apparently acts as a chambermaid)’⁹. It seems the hospitality in Echuca was somewhat less grand than the Menzies Hotel in Melbourne!

The British Empire Mission also gave Agatha the chance for her own publicity, and it was in Melbourne where she gave one of her first interviews, which appeared in The Herald on the 20th of May 1922. When asked if Australia would be appearing in any future novels, Agatha explained that she, ‘had better wait until I get a good distance away, and then I’ll have time to get the right perspective‘. Although Australia didn’t feature as the setting in any of Agatha’s subsequent novels, her travels did prove inspirational for her creativity. While staying in Melbourne, she wrote to her mother that she had ‘done some writing of short stories in the last few days’¹⁰.

Left: Cover of UK first edition of Poirot Investigates (1924); Right: The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim as it appeared in The Sketch on 28 March 1923.

In 1923, Agatha had a collection of twenty-four short stories serialised in The Sketch, a British magazine. Eleven of these stories were then published as the book Poirot Investigates in 1924 and featured some of her most well-known short stories, including The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim, and The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman. Unfortunately, none of the plotting of these Poirot short stories appear in any of Agatha’s notebooks¹¹, and so it is impossible to tell which of these stories she may have written during her time in Melbourne, but how wonderful would it be to think of the highest selling author of all time sitting in the opulent surrounds of the Menzies Hotel listening to the ding of the trams along Bourke Street and crafting her next mystery!

Discover the books by and about Agatha Christie at State Library Victoria here.

References

1. Christie, A, 1922, The Secret Adversary, The Bodley Head, London
2. Prichard, M (eds), 2012, The Grand Tour: letters and photographs from the British Empire Expedition, HarperCollins, London, p 1
3. Christie, A, 1977, An Autobiography, Collins, London, p 290
4. Prichard, M (eds), 2012, The Grand Tour: letters and photographs from the British Empire Expedition, HarperCollins, London, p 29
5. Christie, A, 1977, An Autobiography, Collins, London, p 293
6. Prichard, M (eds), 2012, The Grand Tour: letters and photographs from the British Empire Expedition, HarperCollins, London, p 174
7. Prichard, M (eds), 2012, The Grand Tour: letters and photographs from the British Empire Expedition, HarperCollins, London, p 176
8. Prichard, M (eds), 2012, The Grand Tour: letters and photographs from the British Empire Expedition, HarperCollins, London, p 190
9. Prichard, M (eds), 2012, The Grand Tour: letters and photographs from the British Empire Expedition, HarperCollins, London, p 200
10. Prichard, M (eds), 2012, The Grand Tour: letters and photographs from the British Empire Expedition, HarperCollins, London, p 178
11. Curran, J, 2008, Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: fifty years of mysteries in the making, HarperCollins, London, p 47

Tags: British — crime fiction — literature — melbourne