Edward Eyre was appointed as Assistant Protector of Aborigines and Resident Magistrate at Moorunde on the River Murray, where he had considerable success liaising between the Aboriginal people and the white settlers.

In 1844 he returned to England and published the journals of his earlier explorations and included in the book a substantial account of the culture and lifestyle of the Aboriginal people. He had always been sympathetic to their needs and the crisis they faced with white settlement.

The extracts appended provide some of this background and also Eyre's account of what he endeavoured to achieve at the station at Moorunde. The illustration of the Murray River at Moorunde is based on a drawing by George Hamilton.

Read a PDF of the extracts from this publication.

Dutton, Geoffrey. The hero as murderer : the life of Edward John Eyre, Australian Explorer and Governor of Jamaica 1815-1901, Sydney : Collins ; Melbourne : Cheshire, 1967

Eyre, Edward John. Journals of expeditions of discovery into Central Australia, and overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound, in the years 1840-1; sent by the colonists of South Australia, with the sanction and support of the Government: including an account of the manners and customs of the aborigines and the state of their relations with the Europeans, Adelaide : Libraries Board of South Australia, 1964

Eyre, Edward John. Reports and letters to Governor Grey from E.J. Eyre at Moorunde, Adelaide : Sullivan's Cove, 1985

Ingarnendi: material culture of Aboriginal Australians#

Gutenberg of Australia: Dictionary of Australian biography: Eyre