Decision to abandon outfit and collections |
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| Title : | Decision to abandon outfit and collections |
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| Creator : | Wells, L. A. (Lawrence Allen), 1860-1938 | ||
| Source : | Lawrence Allen Wells, PRG 315/4 | ||
| Date of creation : | 1896 | ||
| Format : | Diary | ||
| Contributor : | State Library catalogue | ||
| Catalogue record | |||
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| Copyright : | This item is reproduced courtesy of Colonel David Davies. It may be printed or saved for research or study. Use for any other purpose requires written permission from Colonel David Davies and the State Library of South Australia. To request approval, complete the Permission to publish form. |
| Description : |
A London mining engineer Albert Calvert, financed the Calvert Scientific Expedition. Its purpose was to explore large areas of central Western Australia for mineral repositores, and was manned and managed by South Australians. Faced with searing desert conditions and great difficulties in locating good supplies of water for his camels and men, the leader Lawrence Wells made the difficult decision to abandon the geological specimens and botanical and other collections as well as most of the expedition's equipment. Only severest necessity impelled him to this decision, in the desperate race to reach water and safety. He recorded this in his diary entry for 27 October 1896. George Albert Keartland had served previously on the Horn Scientific Expedition in the Northern Territory in 1894. The State Herbarium has a few botanical specimens from the Calvert Expedition. Keartland's collections are held in Australia and in Scotland. |
| Subjects | |
| Related names : | Wells, L.A, (Lawrence Allen), 1860-1938 Keartland, G. A. (George Albert), 1848-1926 Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition, 1896-1897 |
| Coverage year : | 1896 |
| Place : | Great Sandy Desert (WA) |
| Further reading : | The explorers Penola, S. Aust.: Penola Branch, National Trust of South Australia, 1996 Steele, Wilfred To the great gulf : the surveys and explorations of L.A. Wells, last Australian explorer 1860-1938 Blackwood, S.A.: Lynton, [1978] Tate, Ralph, A list of plants collected by the Calvert Expedition [Adelaide, 1897] Journal of the Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition, 1896-7: equipped at the request and expense of Albert F. Calvert, Esq., F.R.G.S., London for the purpose of exploring the remaining blanks of Australia Perth [W.A.] : Government Printer, 1902 |
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