Julian Thomas (journalist)

(also known as "The Vagabond"), born John Stanley James,[1] (15 November 1843 – 4 September 1896)[1] was an English-born Australian journalist and author.

There he commenced the “Vagabond" papers, a series of articles or exposes of public institutions, that appeared in the Melbourne Argus.

[2] In 1877 he went to the newly discovered gold fields in Northern Queensland, and in the following year proceeded to New Caledonia as war correspondent during the native revolt.

He was for some months with the French troops attached to the expedition of Henri Rivière, afterwards killed in Tonkin; and visited the Isle of Pines, being the only journalist ever allowed to land there.

In that and the following year he spent a long time in the South Pacific, visiting New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, and New Guinea, where he commanded the expedition sent out by the Argus proprietary.