2 December 1920

I make this entry in my diary on the eve of setting out to the islands of Torres Strait and New Guinea. My primary purpose is to take cinematographic films and plates for a travelogue entertainment. … I am cooperating with the Anglican mission who, in return for me taking a film illustrating their work in the region I propose visiting, will provide me with maintenance and transport facilities. The films will subsequently be lectured to by Lowell Thomas, I reserving the rights for Australasia. The Lowell Thomas rights will be subject to agreement previously made between us. … So new adventure and faces lay ahead of me and I go out into the world knowing no one, into unknown places, yet filled with enthusiasm and feeling that success alone is with my own efforts.

3 December 1920

The Taiynan moved away from the wharf at 10.30 a.m. The wife and little ones and my old friends Allison and Lipman waving until we had passed beyond their vision, behind the wharves and warehouses. I then turned to the fo'c'sle head to watch the bows clearing away the free seas and to look out over the splendid harbour which nature has endowed our ugly city with. Calm sea and exquisite weather heralded our passage from the port into the open sea, and then northward in the eye of a light nor'easter for Newcastle.