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<p>Edward John Eyre, sketch by Jessamine Buxton, 1 January,1917.
Edward John Eyre (1815–1901) was English-born and educated for a military career but decided to travel to Australia instead. Arriving in Sydney in March 1833. Eyre took charge of an 1840 attempt to find a land route between the settlements of South Australia and Swan River on Australia's west coast. Travelling north from the head of Spencer's Gulf, near Adelaide, Eyre was blocked by South Australia's great lakes, his feelings reflected in the names he gave to the landmarks Mount Deception and Mount Hopeless. Suspecting the existence of an inland sea (a myth dispelled only when John McDouall Stuart made the journey past Lake Eyre into Australia's heart in 1860–61), Eyre returned to Spencer's Gulf and decided to forge westward to the coast of the Great Australian Bight. His first attempts failed. Gruelling pushes through waterless and scorching wastes exhausted men and horses and gained only a few more miles with each attempt.
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Born in Adelaide in 1894, Jessamine Buxton studied at the Adelaide School of Arts and Crafts where she later taught. She exhibited at the Royal South Australian School of Arts. She died in 1966.</div>
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State Government Photographer</div>
circa 1917 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1917-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902</div>
The History Trust of South Australian,  South Australian Government <br> Photo <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://data.history.sa.gov.au/sagpc/media/preview/10284?maxsize=1000">[1]</a> <br> Object record <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://data.history.sa.gov.au/sagpc/getitem/10284">[2]</a>