Journal of Mary Ann Friend 1829-1831

Summary

Mary Ann Friend’s autograph manuscript journal of a voyage to Hobart, 14 August 1829 – 12 June 1831. Of exceptional historical interest to Western Australia. Friend’s journal, illustrated with her own sketches, includes three unpublished views of Fremantle, Western Australia, in the first year of its foundation, and two unpublished manuscript maps of the Swan River Settlements, alongside her detailed description of her stay at the Swan River settlements between 30 January and 19 March 1830, capturing them in the very earliest months of their existence (the colony was founded only in early June the previous year, and settlement at Perth began on 12 August). One of the first eye-witness accounts of the settlement on the Swan River, Mary Ann Friend voyaged to Australia on the Wanstead, a merchant vessel taking emigrants to the new Swan River settlements in Western Australia. Under the command of her husband, Matthew Curling Friend, RN, the Wanstead embarked from Portsmouth on 14 August 1829, sailing to Australia via Madeira, Bahia and the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived off Rottnest on 30 January 1830. From the Swan River they sailed on in March to Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land, and returned to England via Singapore, Penang, Burma and Ascension Island.