In 1832, aged just seventeen, the future colonial governor Edward John Eyre (1815–1901) set sail from London for Australia. The farming life that awaited him laid the foundations of an enduring interest in the topography, anthropology and zoology of his adopted homeland. Following an initial expedition in 1839, in 1840 Eyre set out on his pioneering trek from Adelaide to Western Australia. The year-long adventure financially ruined the explorer, but won him the coveted gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society for discovering Lake Torrens. Published in 1845, this two-volume account of the expedition made Eyre a household name in Britain and fuelled popular interest in the former penal colony. Including eleven engravings, Volume 1 opens with the origins of the expedition, but quickly leads readers into the darkest moments experienced en route, including conflicts within the party, desperate searches for water, and the murder of an overseer.