Observing Mondellimin, or when Gerard Krefft ‘saved once more the honour of the exploring expedition’

Abstract

The Victorian government’s expedition to the Murray river in 1857 was distinguished by the quality of images generated by its principals. Guided by the unifying vision of alexander Humboldt, William Blandowski and Gerard Krefft examined the relationship between the australians and their environment. Blandowski initiated a productive engagement with the local nyeri nyeri that yielded an unsurpassed collection of vertebrate animals endemic to the Murray-Darling Basin. Despite Blandowski’s reckless leadership and Krefft’s simmering resentment of his commander, the expedition resulted in irreplaceable data. The immediacy of Krefft’s observations offer a glimpse of mammals that have subsequently plummeted to extinction, as well as providing unique evidence of the interaction between the indigenous australians and their environment. Krefft’s images illuminate one of australia’s richest and most diverse regions at the moment of pastoral incursion. Both men were intensely aware that they had the opportunity of observing a world that was changing irrevocably in front of their eyes.