This journal is handwritten in ink and pencil. Pages 30-75 are written in pencil, pages 75-121 in ink; pages 122-131 in pencil and for the remaining two pages, 132-133, of the expedition narrative in ink. Pages 188-209 are blank, as are other pages separating main sections. There is no index or contents page. This journal documents Tindale's research visit to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns and Kuranda (8-30 December) which preceded the departure for Flinders Island.

The journal includes the following:

• Herbert Hale's (see AA 124) newspaper account of the expedition
  
  
• correspondence
  
  
• black and white photographs
  
  
• lepidoptera notes including notes on the Goldfinch, Waterhouse and Lyell collections
  
  
• notes on ethnological specimens collected and respective South Australian Museum 'A' (Anthropology) numbers
  
  
• drawings
  
  
• hand-drawn maps
  
  
• genealogies of two generations of Pt Stewart 'Kings' and additional genealogies
  
  
• 'names and localities of natives on Flinders Island 1-10th Jan, 1927'
  
  
• notes on social organisation
  
  
• a 'Flinders Island story'
  
  
• extract of vocabulary from EM Curr (see AA 945)
  
  
• notes on Princess Charlotte Bay tribes from Roth (see AA 271).
  
  
  
• Tindale's parallel vocabulary entitled: 'Words to form a Vocabulary of native languages' runs from page 255 to page 337. While column headings include: 'Flinders Island, Bathurst Head, Barrow Pt, Port Stewart and Barunguan', these words were later published under the headings: Mutumui, Walmbaria, Kokolamalama and Barunguan Tribes (see HM Hale & NB Tindale 'Aborigines of Princess Charlotte Bay, North Queensland, Part II,Records of the South Australian Museum, 1934, 5(2), pages 117-172).
  
  
• notes and sketches of paintings in the Wakarma Beach rockshelter
  
  
• notes on Flinders Island canoe and place names together with a language map
  
  
• Language notes, including vocabulary and a text, are found at pages 362-369
  
  
• a note regarding data sent to Dr J Beaton (1982)
  
  
• a copy of a 1983 letter to G Walsh regarding a king-plate.
  
  

A slip-case at the back of the book contains the following folded documents:

• draft of the published parallel vocabulary mentioned above, 10 foolscap pages
  
  
• sketches of rock-paintings from the Endaen shelter
  
  
• pencil sketch of canoe hulls (relating to page 344 etc)
  
  
• note regarding the northern boundary of Barunguan Tribe
  
  
• document headed 'Note to Page 35', relating to the fall in property prices in Adelaide (not in Tindale's hand, and probably written mid-19th century)
  
  
• pencil-drawn map of eastern Cape York language groups, titled 'rough Map prepared after N.B. Tindale trip, 1926-1927'
  
  
• backed map of Queensland, headed 'Map of Queensland illustrating route'. Map is not annotated.
  
  

Other localities visited include Bathurst Head, Barrow Point, Thursday Island, Coen, Port Stewart and Cairns.

The expedition party included Herbert Mathew Hale (zoologist, South Australian Museum) and Norman Barnett Tindale (ethnologist, entomologist, South Australian Museum).

Tindale Tribes: Bakanambia; Barungguan; Mutumui; Walmbaria.