Arthur Conan Doyle 1859-1930 We all devoted ourselves to surf-bathing, spending a good deal of our day in the water as is the custom of the place. It is a real romp with Nature, for the great Pacific rollers come sweeping in and break over you, rolling you over on the sand if they can catch you unawares. It was a golden patch in our restless lives. The Wanderings of a Spiritualist (1921) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, visited Australia in 1920-1921 during a series of lecture tours on Spiritualism.