Carl August Meyer began work at the Lutheran Mission, Cooper's Creek, as a teacher in 1875. In July 1878 he was ordained, and returned to the Mission with the new missionary Johann Flierl. Meyer served at the Mission (which re-located to Killalpaninna in 1879) from 1878 to 1885 as a teacher and a minister. In 1885 Meyer went to Queensland, where he served as a missionary at Bloomfield and Hope Valley. He returned to South Australia in 1892, and worked as a teacher. He retired to Longmeil, Tanunda, and died in 1912.

Rev. Meyer gave notes on the language of the Dieri tribe to FX Martin (see AA 207), who was associated with Killalpaninna Mission between 1882 and 1884. Martin lent the manuscript to the South Australian Museum in December 1933. It was missing all the words beginning with the letter 'U' and some of those beginning with the letter 'P'. The vocabulary was transcribed in January 1934 on to cards, and the manuscript returned to Martin. A note in the Museum's Register of Anthropological Documents states that 'T. Vogelsang (see AA 315) also compiled the vocabulary on loose sheets in his own hand'. There are two versions of the vocabulary: one on index cards with annotations by T Vogelsang, and some additional annotations by NB Tindale (see AA 338), arranged in alphabetical order by Dieri word and stored in a drawer marked 'Dieri South Australia Meier 1882' in the NB Tindale Collection (AA 338/7/2/7); and a second version, with few annotations, on slips of paper, stored in AA 215 Meyer.

Notes by FX Martin including comments on this vocabulary and a guide to pronunciation are in AA 207 Martin Collection, Series 1. Note that Martin refers to 'Rev A. Meier' as Superintendent of the Mission.

Related Collection: AA 207 Martin.