Saw crows and footprints |
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| Title : | Saw crows and footprints |
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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 : |
On 12 October 1896, Lawrence Wells recorded in his diary that he saw some footprints of Aboriginal people and some crows. These were the few signs of life in the barren expanse of the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia that the Calvert Scientific Expedition was crossing. Wells walked on ahead after the expedition camped for the day to observe the country ahead of them, and recorded a dry salt lake and endless sand ridges as far as he could see with some sandstone outcrops to the west, together with some wattle and spinifex. There was no evidence in sight of any improvement in the land. The Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition was financed by Albert Calvert, a London mining engineer who hoped that his expedition would locate mineral resources and pastoral lands in central Western Australia. The expedition leader Lawrence Allen Wells was a South Australian, and the expedition was managed by AT Magarey of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australian Branch). Wells was an experienced explorer and surveyor, and the expedition was equipped with camels which were managed by the experienced cameleer Bejah Dervish. |
| Subjects | |
| Related names : | Wells, L. A. (Lawrence Allen), 1860-1938 Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition (1896-1897) Bejah, Dervish, 1862?-1957. |
| Coverage year : | 1896 |
| Place : | Great Sandy Desert (WA) |
| Further reading : | 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 Steele, Wilfred, To the great gulf: the surveys and explorations of L.A. Wells, last Australian explorer 1860-1938 Blackwood, S.A.: Lynton, [1978] The explorers Penola, S. Aust.: Penola Branch, National Trust of South Australia, 1996 |
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