Item #95471 Journal of Explorations in Central Australia, by The Central Australian Exploration Syndicate ... 1898 to 1900. Allan A. DAVIDSON.
Journal of Explorations in Central Australia, by The Central Australian Exploration Syndicate ... 1898 to 1900

Journal of Explorations in Central Australia, by The Central Australian Exploration Syndicate ... 1898 to 1900

Adelaide, C.E. Bristow, Government Printer, 1905.

Foolscap folio, 76 pages plus 2 extremely large folding colour maps: 'Map of Explorations in Central Australia ... 1898 to 1901', showing the geographical and topographical nature of the relevant regions (575 × 1550 mm, with a small section extending beyond the top margin); the second one gives details of an 11,000 square mile block prospected by Davidson in the first two years (paper size 622 × 1747 mm).

Modern cloth lettered in gilt on the front cover; title page a little unevenly sunned near the front bottom corner and along the bottom edge, with a few tiny light marks; expert conservation to a tiny cut to the bottom edge of the last seven leaves and a trifling spot of silverfish damage to the leading margin of the last leaf; an excellent copy.

South Australian Parliamentary Paper Number 27 of 1905; one of only 730 copies. McLaren 7723. The Murchison and Davenport Ranges in 1898 and 1899, and from the vicinity of Tennant Creek westward to within 30 miles of the Western Australian border and back by a circuitous route (Tanami, The Granites) in 1900. Davidson explored one of the few regions that remained unknown at the end of the nineteenth century, and fellow Australian explorer Charles Winnecke considered that 'Mr Davidson's journey, although not quite so extensive, should be classed with that of other leading explorers; his work is of double interest also to us by the fact that it gives us a correct knowledge of the topographical as well as geological nature of the country, which has not been the case with many other explorers'. The last three pages of this paper reprint a lecture on Davidson's explorations given in 1901 by Winnecke, wherein the latter explains how he was responsible for compiling the maps from Davidson's 'bearings and old field notes and plans'.

Item #95471

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