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Clip description
Having been thwarted by what he described as a massive horseshoe-shaped salt pan to the far north of Adelaide, Edward John Eyre (played in this reenactment by Paul Mason) decided, against government advice, to continue east to west from the whaling station at Fowlers Bay in South Australia. He headed out across the Nullarbor Plain to King George’s Sound at Albany in Western Australia, a feat never before accomplished by a white man.
Curator’s notes
Edward John Eyre was a true Englishman in the tradition of the great 19th century British-African explorers, who accomplished what they did with raw courage and willpower. Risking death from starvation and lack of water, Eyre pushed on with his small band through endless miles of sand dunes, discovering what we now know all too well – that the Nullarbor Plain is one of the great desolate and waterless deserts of the world.
Bill Peach retraces the footsteps of Eyre, showing us at close hand the terrible but magnificent country the men traversed. Massive sand dunes as far as the eye can see stretch inland from a landscape of towering cliffs plunging into the sea. At rare intervals there’s a break in the cliffs, where Eyre and his expedition found the precious drinking water without which they would have perished.
The recreation footage of Eyre is well made, although clearly on a low budget, and combined with the excellent cinematography, gives a real sense of the vastness of the area and the immensity of the task. Peach’s own appearance nicely personalises the journey and makes it real for us.
