Overview

Australia during the nineteenth century was the site of extensive settlement and political and cultural expansion by the British colonial governments in the continent. In particular, the period between 1830 and 1860 saw a tremendous surge in the continent's population. One aspect of this expansion was the effort to explore the vast, sparsely populated land. Numerous explorers made arduous, brutal, and sometimes fatal efforts to explore Australia. Edward Eyre's 1840-41 journey through the South and Western territories of the Australian interior—a journey marked by thirst, starvation, freezing cold, and murder—epitomizes these expeditions. The journey assisted in opening up the South and...