Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound, in the Years 1840–1

Published in 1845, this account of Eyre's Australian expedition enables readers to 'accompany' the explorer across the dangerous outback.

Edward John Eyre (Author)

9781108038973, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 November 2011

492 pages, 11 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.8 cm, 0.62 kg

In 1832, aged just seventeen, the future colonial governor Edward John Eyre (1815–1901) set sail from London for Australia. The farming life that awaited him laid the foundations of an enduring interest in the topography, anthropology and zoology of his adopted homeland. Following an initial expedition in 1839, in 1840 Eyre set out on his pioneering trek from Adelaide to Western Australia. The year-long adventure financially ruined the explorer, but won him the coveted gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society for discovering Lake Torrens. Published in 1845, this two-volume account of the expedition made Eyre a household name in Britain and fuelled popular interest in the former penal colony. Including eleven engravings, Volume 1 opens with the origins of the expedition, but quickly leads readers into the darkest moments experienced en route, including conflicts within the party, desperate searches for water, and the murder of an overseer.

Preface
1. Origin of the expedition
2. First night's encampment with party
3. Spring Hill
4. Make arrangements for getting up stores from the Waterwitch
5. Break up the encampment
6. Causes of hostility of the natives
7. Excursion to the north-east
8. Proceed to the westward
9. Boy speared by the natives
10. Country between Streaky Bay and Baxter's Range
11. Embark stores
12. Land the stores and send the cutter to Denial Bay
13. Future plans
14. Proceed to the westward
15. Return of Mr. Scott in the Hero
16. Go back to meet the overseer
17. Horses begin to knock up
18. Go back with a native
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Australasian & Pacific history [HBJM]