Diary of George Fletcher Moore

Diary of Ten Years Eventful Life of an Early Settler in Western Australia and also A Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language of the Aborigines, often shortened to Diary of Ten Years Eventful Life of an Early Settler in Western Australia or even just Diary of Ten Years, is the title of an 1884 book in which were published excerpts of the diary of George Fletcher Moore between 1830 and 1841. Diary of Ten Years is an extremely important record of early colonial life in Western Australia, because it is one of a few records that were written from the point of view of an ordinary colonist, as opposed to the official correspondence of a salaried public official. Stannage (1978) describes the book as an immensely valuable social document and the best published guide we have to life in Swan River colony between 1830 and 1840.

Diary of Ten Years was written by Moore in the form of a series of letters to family in Ireland. The letters from 1830 to mid 1833 were published in 1834 as Extracts from the Letters and Journals of George Fletcher Moore, now filling a judicial office at the Swan River Settlement. Publication was at the request of Moore's father Joseph, and may have been without George Fletcher Moore's knowledge. Around 1880, the owner and editor of The West Australian, Sir Thomas Cockburn Campbell, obtained permission from Moore to serialise the letters. The letters appeared in The West Australian in 1881 and 1882. On reading them, Moore decided to republish them in book form, along with his letters home for the years up to 1841. He also included for publication A Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language in Common Use Amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia, which had been previously published in 1842. Diary of Ten Years was published in 1884 by M. Walbrook.

References

• Moore, George Fletcher (1884). Diary of Ten Years Eventful Life of an Early Settler in Western Australia, and also A Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language of the Aborigines. First published by M. Walbrook, London. Facsimile edition published in 1978 by University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, Western Australia
• Stannage, C. T. (1978). Introduction to Facsimile edition of Moore (1884).