that the book was inspired by a talk with his brother Frank on a walk in the Surrey countryside about the European “discovery” of Tasmania, when Frank observed: “Suppose some being from another planet were to drop out of the sky suddenly and begin laying about them here!”
Despite repeated invitations, Wells did not visit Australia for 40 years after the book came out. He finally arrived in Fremantle on the Comorin on 27 December 1938.That event is recorded among theat Fremantle from 1989 to 1972, held by the National Archives of Australia – a fascinating and searchable history of visitors and migrants.
The prime minister, Joseph Lyons, who supported appeasement, said the government would not be associated with the “bad taste” remarks and regretted that Wells had “so far indulged his well-known political sympathies as to make disparaging remarks about the leaders of other nations”. He reportedly “resented” the press attention, “but nobody would leave him alone; curious crowds followed him wherever he went”.