In late December 1868, the Surveyor-General of South Australia, George Goyder, sailed from Port Adelaide with the photographer Captain Samuel Sweet and a team of 140 men, and crew. The group was heading for Darwin to commence surveying the Northern Territory. The name of their vessel was the SS Moonta. The voyage to what would one day be Darwin took 41 days. Goyder maintained strict discipline with the men on board, his schedule for them included recreation as well as work, and for this reason he arranged for the publication of a small newspaper. Wentworth Hardy, a draftsman with the party, was editor with chainman William Fisher assisting him. The newspaper consisted of six hand written pages. Five issues appeared, with a final supplementary issue marking the arrival of the expedition in Port Darwin. The issues contained humorous articles, advertisements for ship-board concerts and reports of boxing matches, as well as lengthy lost and found columns and articles outlining the history of exploration in the Northern Territory. Initially a small hand-written and roneoed newspaper was produced, but this was later printed professionally in Adelaide. The State Library has copies of both versions, but not any originals.

Fisher, William

Goyder, G.W. (George Woodroffe), 1826-1898

Hardy, Wentworth M.

Sweet, Samuel White, 1825-1886

Moonta (Ship)