The Diary of Emily Caroline Creaghe, Explorer

By Peter Monteath Ed, North Adelaide: Corkwood Press, 2004, 118 pages, paperback, . Reviewed by Amanda Day in the May 2005 issue.

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Originally published in the Lett's Australasian Diary and Almanac for 1883, the diary of explorer, Emily Caroline Creaghe has been republished with an introduction by Peter Monteath, Senior Lecturer in Australian History at Flinders University. Corkwood Press are known for their publication of journals of other explorers including Charles Sturt and Ludwig Leichhardt. Born in 1860, Creaghe spent her early life in India before her father retired from his post in the Royal Artillery. Her family returned to England before migrating in 1876 to Australia, settling at Lavender Bay. During a visit to her sister and brother-in-law in Goodna, near Brisbane, Caroline met Harry Creaghe, whom she married in 1881.

Monteath provides a well-researched and concise introduction that gives an overview of settlement and exploration of the Northern Territory as well as introducing Ernest Favenc as the man who filled in the 'gaps in the outback map of Australia'. The notes on the text itself explain the story of how the diary came to be deposited in the Mitchell Library and Monteath has stayed true to the original formatting that Creaghe used on her expedition. Complementing Creaghe's account are maps provided by a great-granddaughter, which illustrate the various stopping points on the journey and reveals the breadth of land traversed. Photos and drawings have been selected sympathetically from various state repositories. While some footnotes are occasionally redundant, the depth of scholarly research informing them is, however, outstanding.

The very nature of diaries, as Monteath suggests, are 'private documents' and Creaghe's extraordinary journey from Normanton in the Gulf of Carpentaria through to Port Darwin provides the reader with an insight into the stress, hardship and privations suffered by Creaghe and her husband on their adventure with Ernest Favenc and Lindsay Crawford. Reasons why Creaghe was invited on the expedition are unclear, but may have some basis in the loss of the couple's first child, Cayley, and the suggested stillbirth of Cayley's twin brother, Robert. Monteath proposes that the couple's desire to try something new and adventurous to assist them in their grief was a motivating factor for taking part in the expedition. In addition, the South Australian Government's desire to open the land of the Northern Territory up for selection was a factor as by taking a white woman and returning her safely from such an expedition, sales of land in England and amongst the settlers would potentially ensue. Harry Creaghe had extensive experience on Queensland cattle stations and exploring new tracts of land gave him the opportunity to consider settlement in some of the more remote parts of the interior. Favenc's wife, Bessie, was to also join the expedition; however, illness prevented her from doing so. After some enforced delays, Creaghe could not hide her 'intense delight' (p 38) on April 11, 1883 to finally be leaving on the expedition. Creaghe's expressive writing and her responses to various experiences emerges throughout her diary and it is refreshing to read an account by such a youthful explorer.

The diary, however, is also stark and devoid in parts of emotion. Possibly the technique of being verbose or taciturn is symptomatic of Creaghe's youth. Water, or the lack of it, is a constant subject for Creaghe. The food and the conditions under which they were travelling are also topics for comment by Creaghe. At the end of the text are some recipes that she has collected along the journey. The isolation and desolation of the outback is noted by Creaghe whilst writing on the deaths of party members from being 'touched by the sun'. The first death Creaghe witnessed was that of Mr Warner whose 'groans pained her' and that the party was helpless to effectively render any sort of medical treatment to Mr Warner is clear. It appears that in some instances the group was unable to assist their horses either.

A number of tensions also arose amongst the party members and to maintain propriety in her diary; Creaghe has crossed out references to the disputes that occurred between the travelling companions. In particular, Favenc created discord and Creaghe describes him as 'most objectionable [and] ... a man who is not a gentleman'. (p 56) There are references also to a Mr Willis who was alleged to have been spreading rumours about Caroline Creaghe and her suspected relationship with a Mr Tudor. (p 35) Creaghe has short words to say on these gentlemen and does not dwell too long on this subject. These innuendoes make for interesting reading as relationships in this environment would have been greatly heightened.

Creaghe observes the landscape through reflective eyes. This is evident when she reflects on the party leaving the spears belonging to an Aboriginal tribe that they meet because 'harm has been done so often by white men stealing Blacks' only means of gaining their food'. (p 39) Creaghe also comments on the relationships, hostility and gender constraints between males and females within the tribes. Her observations also included her ever-present fear of attack by Indigenous people, as a result of the ever-increasing pastoralist expansion into tribal hunting grounds. Creaghe makes various empathetic and insightful comments on the violence inflicted upon both sides in the frontier wars.

Lack of food and water, illness and death amongst the party, the intricacies of human relationships, combined with constant heat, the ever-present flies and mosquitoes coupled with the fear of attack would have made a lesser explorer challenge why they were engaging in such an expedition. Creaghe does not do this and it is remarkable that she maintained her diary against these challenges. Creaghe's diary allows us to time-travel to an era and on an expedition that allows the reader to appreciate the privations of exploration from a uniquely youthful and female perspective.

Citation

• Amanda Day. 'Review: The Diary of Emily Caroline Creaghe, Explorer by Peter Monteath ed' [online]. Network Review of Books (Perth, Australian Public Intellectual Network), May 2005. Availability: <please cite the web address here> ISSN 1833-0932. [accessed 22 May 2013].

Back Cover Blurb

• 'We none of us ate any salt meat, or anything that would tend to give us a thirst. We are now on what is called the 'Table-land', a flat piece of country on the top of a very high mountain. We are now in unexplored country where no white man has been before, so it is uncertain when we may see water again'.
  
  So reads part of the entry in Caroline Creaghe's diary for Monday 23 April 1883. By that time, as the sole female member of an exploring party, she was already well acquainted with the privations and harshness of travel in Australia's north. Ahead lay territory unknown to Europeans, as well as numerous tests of endurance, strength and courage.
  
  Creaghe's diary, published here in full for the first time, is one of the most remarkable documents of Australian exploration, written by one of the rarest of explorers - a woman.