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and perhaps demonstrates the importance Wylie had in assisting Eyre in his exploration. The
narrative included in Social Studies for Queensland schools grade 5 (Department of
Education, 1959/1962/1966) presents as an anomaly to those typical of interactions between
Indigenous people and explorers. Here, there are three Indigenous men mentioned
specifically, with only the name of one included, Wylie. Presented as an adventure story to
school students, the narrative explains that three Indigenous men accompanied the explorers
Eyre and Baxter. Two of the Indigenous men kill Baxter with the third, Wylie, remaining
loyal to Eyre. Wylie receives no credit for his displays of loyalty, with the only reference
made by Eyre of Wylie, included in this textbook being: “At the dead of night, in the wildest
wastes of Australia, with the fierce wind raging, I was left with a single native, and him I
could not trust. Both guns were gone. The rifle was useless, and also the pistol” (Department
of Education, 1959/1962/ 1966, p. 75). Whilst, to be fair to Eyre, this account is from his
diary entry of the time and it would not seem out of the ordinary that he would be suspicious
of Wylie immediately following the death of his long time companion, Baxter, at the hands of
the other two Indigenous men. However, what is not fair is that further in the narrative, when
it becomes clear that Wylie shows nothing but loyalty to Eyre (until they are rescued some
time later off the coast of South Australia, this part of their journey not included in the
textbook), no further statement of Wylie’s character is made in order to demonstrate that
Eyre’s fears were to become unfounded, particularly as, when later “The two native boys who
had killed Baxter appeared and tried to entice Wylie to join them. He would not go, and
stayed with Eyre” (Department of Education, 1959/1962/1966, p. 75). Here, Indigenous
Australians are treated with suspicion, and even when Wylie does not act violently and
remains dependable to the explorer Eyre, this fact is not articulated overtly to the school
students reading this narrative. Instead, the narrative overtly articulates an untrustworthy
attitude towards Indigenous Australians, even the one who stood loyally with Eyre, and who,
in fact, had alerted Eyre to the violent act of the other two Indigenous men with the
exploration party. However, none of this is articulated in the narrative. So, whilst it is able to
be justified why Eyre may be concerned at least initially for his wellbeing, the fact that Wylie
remained with the explorer is never given any recognition.
6.4.8 Conclusion and general comments.
Given the quantity of information in this category, and in order to avoid a potentially
fragmented discussion of the overall Indigenous representations with the theme of Indigenous
interactions with explorers, it is appropriate to provide a conclusion and make some general
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