Letters and journal, 1830-1849

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The letters and journal letters were mostly addressed to his family as a whole, but some were sent specifically to his father, his sisters or his brother Joseph. Of the 52 letters, half were written in the years 1830-1833. Moore visited Britain in 1841 and there are therefore no letters until he returned to Western Australia in 1843. The letters, which are all very lengthy, provide an extraordinarily detailed record of the first two decades of the colony. They refer inter alia to Moore's arrival at the Swan River, his first impressions and speculations about the future of the settlement, his property and the erection of a house, stock and crops, relations with other settlers, the economic prospects of the colony, the arrival of ships, the scarcity of provisions (1832), exploring expeditions including the Avon Valley (1831) and the coastal district near Champion Bay (1840), visits to King George's Sound, relations with shepherds and other farm workers, production of wool and wheat, prices, land transactions, financial matters, meetings and conflict with Indigenous Australians, meetings of the Legislative Council and Executive Council, court cases and legal work. Among the many individuals mentioned are his brother Samuel Moore (who also emigrated to Western Australia), Fanny Jackson (whom he married in 1846), the governors James Stirling, John Hutt and Sir Andrew Clarke, Captain George Grey, Peter Broun, Major J.C. Irwin, J.S. Roe, Captain William Shaw, William Mackie, William Brockman and Lieutenant Henry Bull.

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