George Burston's granddaughter describes his 'world tour', 2006

Transcript of interview

Burston and Stokes left Melbourne on a hot day in November, on their way to Sydney. They had various adventures on the way. They ran into bushfires. They got lost. They both carried pistols, and one of the things they did was shoot the odd goanna and I think practically anything else that moved - that was the way of young men in those days. They got to Sydney, where they were given a dinner by the Sydney Bicycle Club, and then they moved to Brisbane, where they took a mail steamer, and went to what is now Indonesia but was then the Dutch East Indies. They had trouble with the Customs there, but from there, they got on another boat, and rode up through Burma, from thence to Calcutta and a ride up into the Himalayas through tiger-infested country. Back south and across India to the other side.

Another steamer, and to Egypt, which they didn't like, and didn't want to ride much in, and then to Palestine, where their adventures, over the mountains, were quite hair-raising. Then they went to Damascus - they were quite religious people and they were interested in St Paul, and from thence to Sicily by boat, and then on the toe of Italy, where they went to Rome and they were arrested, for riding bicycles in Rome, but got off that with the aid of a man who had been in Australia and knew them.

Then they went north, crossed the Alps, rode through Germany, and Holland, and came out in time, to attend the Derby in England. They were interested in comparing it to the Melbourne Cup, which they felt was a much grander event. They rode around England then, but it was by then 1899 [sic], and the world depression was beginning. One of them, and it isn't clear which, had to come home. So they went through America by rail, and steamer home to Melbourne. So they actually did go around the world, but not all of it by bicycle.