This is the first of three volumes. Pages number from 1 to 172. Diary entries have been handwritten and include a contents list.

The Groote Eylandt journals record Tindale's first expedition. He was granted one year's leave of absence from his assistant-entomologist's duties to assist the Church Missionary Society of Australia and Tasmania as an honorary member. The South Australian Museum advanced Tindale £ 50 to purchase specimens. Of the 7,651 specimens and objects Tindale collected on Groote Eylandt, 487 were ethnographic. During this time Tindale formed an association with Maroadunei, a Ngandi tribe song-maker from Arnhem Land who introduced him to the concept of tribal boundaries. At this time the common European perception was that Aboriginal people roamed at will over the countryside as 'free wanderers'.

This journal includes the following:

• Tindale's preparation for the trip
  
  
• formulae for developing photographs obtained from his father James
  
  
• purchase of supplies
  
  
• specimen collection
  
  
• Tindale's observations once he reaches the Mission Station (page 112) of and interactions with the locals, flora and fauna, malaria, recording Mara vocabulary (see volume II for a listing of words), and journey further down the Roper River
  
  
• two flora samples (Stanospermum and Cassia)
  
  
• drawings.
  
  

Places include: journey to the Mission Station via Melbourne, Sydney, Katoomba, Townsville, Cairns, Thursday Island, Mapoon, and down Roper River.

Tindale Tribes: Ingura; Mara.