Diary of W H Tietkens 1879-80

On an expedition to the western boundary of South Australia This is an important account of a private expedition into the Maralinga Tjarutja lands in search of water with a view of setting up a pastoral lease. Tietkens, who was Giles' second in command on an earlier expedition which was the first to traverse Australia from east to west, put his experience to good use under very trying conditions. Despite sinking several deep wells, the expedition failed: only brackish water was found, there were conflicts with the workers in the party and skirmishes with the local aborigines. This book is the transcript of Tietkens' diary held in the Mortlock Library of South Australia. Since it was never intended for publication, Tietkens speaks frankly about the people he met and thus gives us a unique insight into the day to day lives of the very earliest settlers of the area.

An edition of this diary was published by the Weapons Research Establishment of Salisbury, SA in 1961. That pamphlet is itself rare today. I have used the map from that edition for this publication, but it is newly typeset and has a new introduction. The book has 55 pages of text and the map, and is a hand-bound limited edition of 400 numbered copies. The binding is a dark red buckram with gold embossing. The price is $30.
- corkwood press [10/1998]

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